Dubai: Yamama Badwan
The Emirates Mars Exploration Project will celebrate tomorrow, Wednesday, July 20, the Martian year since the launch of the Hope probe to the red planet, equivalent to two Earth years (687) days, in a journey that lasted 204 days, during which it covered a distance of 493 million km. Space exploration, to be the first in the Arab world and the fifth internationally in reaching Mars.
The “Mars” year is much longer than the Earth’s year, and lasts about 687 days, which means that the length of the seasons on Mars is twice as long as on Earth, and because the shape of Mars’ orbit around the sun is “oval”, the seasonal, summer-winter changes are more severe compared to their counterparts on Earth. Earth, and the highest temperature on Mars is: 21.1° C (70°), and the lowest temperature is -37.8° C (-100°).
The Hope probe had passed through several stations before its launch from Tingashima Island in Japan, at 1:58 am, UAE time, on the H2A missile. The first launch, scheduled for July 15, 2020, was postponed for reasons related to bad weather conditions in Japan. Hence, the launch scheduled for July 17, 2020, was again postponed, due to the continued turbulence and instability of weather conditions on the island.
After 6 years of planning and work, and after 12 hours of waiting and preparations for the upcoming launch, and after a countdown in Arabic letters (from ten to one), the Hope Probe was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, to dig on Monday, July 20, 2020, its place in the history of the Emirates. , marking a major step in which the UAE leads Arab hope for a bright tomorrow, and opens the gateway to a new stage in its history as a country with a future vision based on science, work and comprehensive development, in its humanitarian mission towards the Red Planet.
Over the course of about 30 minutes, the people of the Emirates and Arabs and everyone who followed the event until the early hours of dawn, held the breath of the probe of hope, at a speed of 39 thousand and 600 km / hour, the Earth’s atmosphere to pass through the static space, where, during the launch speed necessary to free the probe from Earth’s gravity, the separation of The first group of booster small rockets, followed by the operation of 3 rocket platforms, collapsed in turn to release the probe into space on its journey towards the Red Planet.
Al Khawaneej Time
At 3:10 am, Al Khawaneej local time in the Emirates, the first broadcast signal was recorded from the Hope probe after the probe turned on its transmitter, and then the Al Khawaneej Control Center began receiving the first data sent by the probe about an hour after launch. The work team at the center conducted a preliminary analysis of this data to ensure the condition of the probe and the position of the solar panels, and whether they were opened correctly, in addition to verifying that the probe was correctly pointed towards the sun.
preparatory stages
The launch of the Hope Probe was preceded by 3 basic preparation stages; The first stage consisted of removing the cover of the exploration camera before installing the missile on the launch platform, and the second stage included moving the missile carrying the probe to the launch platform, a complex and delicate process, which took about half an hour, and necessitated separating the ground control equipment from the probe temporarily, so that it was re-installed. Activate this equipment when arriving at the platform.
As for the third stage, it was represented in the final preparations 18 hours before the launch of the probe, which included withdrawing nitrogen gas to maintain the safety of the devices, and clean air in the combustion chamber of the rocket, followed by checking the condition of the batteries and the condition of the probe, in addition to making sure that the team is ready in the operating room three before. Hours of launch, the probe’s inspection process continued until five minutes before launch.
According to the schedule, the scientific mission of the probe will continue until May 2023, with the possibility of extending it at least for a new Martian year, that is, two Earth years, if necessary, to collect more than 1,000 gigabytes of data and unique images of the red planet, at various times of the year and day.
The probe is working to provide the first comprehensive picture of the climatic conditions on Mars throughout the year, in addition to examining the reasons for the fading of the upper layer of the Martian atmosphere, investigating the relationship between the lower and upper layers of the atmosphere on Mars, and observing weather phenomena on the surface of Mars, including monitoring Dust storms, temperature changes, revealing the reasons behind the erosion of the surface of Mars, and searching for any relationships between current weather and the ancient climatic conditions of the Red Planet.
data packets
In early July, the Emirates Mars Exploration Project (Hope Probe) announced a new set of scientific observations related to the Martian atmosphere, as part of the fourth batch of scientific data, which amounted to 118.5 gigabytes, during the probe mission around the orbit of Mars between December 2021 and February 2022. The total amount of data collected by the Hope Probe of information, images and data amounted to 688.5 gigabytes.
capture orbit
The arrival of the Hope probe to the orbit of the red planet on February 9, 2021 marked the entry into the capture orbit around the red planet, completing the most difficult stages of its space mission, making the UAE the first Arab country and the fifth in the world to reach Mars.
The critical moments of the stage of entering the capture orbit around the red planet began at 7:42 pm UAE time, with the Hope probe, according to the programming processes that the work team had previously conducted before its launch, starting its six engines for reverse thrust «Delta». V” to slow its speed from 121 kilometers to 18,000 kilometers per hour, using half of the fuel it carries, in a process that took 27 minutes, and at 8:08 pm, the ground station in Al Khawaneej received a signal from the probe successfully entering the Mars orbit stage, to write a state The UAE is named in prominent letters in the history of space missions to explore the Red Planet
unique pictures
The scientific data published so far included observations and data that no previous exploration mission to Mars had reached, as well as unique images of the red planet, which monitor unprecedented observations about the behavior of the gases in the atmosphere of the red planet and the interactions that occur between them. The ultraviolet of the Hope probe presents significant differences in the abundance of both atomic oxygen and carbon monoxide in the upper atmosphere of Mars on the diurnal side of the planet.
The Hope probe was able to monitor the red planet with a large set of unique images, for example, the detection of the phenomenon of separate aurora in the atmosphere of Mars last June 30, so that the UAE recorded a new discovery, as these exceptional images contribute to enriching the knowledge of scientists and researchers when Study of the interactions between solar radiation and the magnetic field of Mars and its atmosphere.
On February 14, 2021, the first image taken by the Hope probe was published while it was in Mars orbit of the red planet, according to the established time plans, marking the beginning of the stage of collecting 1,000 gigabytes of new data on Mars.
On February 14, 2021, the digital exploration camera captured the first image of the volcano Olympus Mons, which is the largest volcano on Mars and the largest volcano in the solar system, while the infrared spectrometer captured; Thermal images, showing the night side of Mars, through which the terrain of the “Arabian Land” on Mars can be observed.
On March 15, 2021, a set of multispectral images were taken of a crater-filled region known as the Land of Arabia at an altitude of 3,500 km above the surface of Mars, and on September 15, 2021, a set of multispectral images of the fully lit half of the Red Planet was taken. The probe is located at an altitude of approximately 19,900 km above the surface of Mars, and on January 5, 2022, a number of dust storms were detected at an altitude of 40,500 km above the surface of Mars. Not only that; Rather, a star-tracking camera that is used for navigation within the space navigation devices of the probe was taken on July 22, 2020, two days after its launch, the first image of its destination towards the red planet, after it was away from the planet by one million kilometers in the depth of space, while it was followed in August 2020 by a photo other captured by the probe; As it exceeded 100 million kilometers from its journey, Mars appeared in the front, while Saturn and Jupiter were in the back.