Hope Probe to launch to Mars in One Year

The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) have confirmed that the launch of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM)’s Hope Probe, is in less than a year. MBRSC said it plans to launch the Hope Probe into orbit around mid-July 2020, and it is expected to reach Mars orbit in the first quarter of 2021, the year of the Golden Jubilee of the UAE.
The program aims to collect information on Mars’ meteorological layers and study the causes of loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases, the two main constituents of water, from the upper layer of the Martian atmosphere. For the first time, a space exploration mission will be able to take a global picture of the Martian atmosphere.
A joint statement said that the launch window of the Hope Probe, the first Arab project to explore another planet, is due to begin in the 2^nd half of July 2020. The launch window is the time during which the Hope Probe must be sent to Mars as Earth and Mars would be at their closest point, which happens only once every two years.
The Hope Probe will be launched from Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan in July 2020, with a carrier rocket similar to that used for the launch of satellites, and it will take from seven to nine months to reach Mars.
In its journey to Mars, the probe would need to change its position from time to time to point its solar panels at the sun to charge its batteries, and to point its antenna back at Earth to maintain contact with mission control.
The Hope Probe is expected to collect more than 1,000 GB of new data on the Red Planet.

Scientific tools
The scientific devices the probe will be using are the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI), Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), and the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS).
MBRSC revealed that all these devices operate efficiently in different environmental conditions. Several aspects related to the design, assembly of the structure, cameras and control have been verified.
A unique mission
For the first time, a Mars exploration project will be able to take a global picture of the Martian atmosphere, it will do so by taking an integrated picture of the atmosphere throughout the day and for a long period of time allowing it to do so in different seasons throughout the year.
The Hope Probe’s research team, which includes 10 Emiratis amongst a global team, will work on continuous research that will reveal the secrets of the Red Planet and transfer knowledge between the UAE and the world by analyzing data to be sent by the Hope Probe.
The probe will collect more than 1,000 GB of new data from the Red Planet. The information will be professionally managed, analyzed, and stored in a scientific data center in the UAE. The scientific team will index and analyze the data available to humanity for the first time and later share it with the global scientific community interested in Mars.
There have been only 26 successful missions to Mars, from the United States, Europe, Japan and others. In July 2020, the UAE joins these countries to be among the only nine countries in the world to contribute to the discovery of Mars.