Posted on 02/09/2021 9:53:40 PM PST by caww
The United Arab Emirates' "Hope" probe on Monday successfully entered Mars' orbit, making history as the Arab world's first interplanetary mission....The probe is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, but the UAE also wants it to serve as an inspiration for the region's youth.
Officials at mission control broke into applause, visibly relieved after a tense half-hour as the probe carried out a "burn" to slow itself enough to be pulled in by Martian gravity, in what was the most perilous stage of the journey.
Hope is the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month after China and the US also launched missions in July, taking advantage of a period when the Earth and Mars are nearest.
The UAE's venture is also timed to mark the 50th anniversary of the unification of the nation's seven emirates.
As the clock ticked down, Dubai's needle-shaped Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, lit up in red with blue laser lights, and erupted into a light and fountain show with news of the success.
Landmarks across the Gulf state have been illuminated in red at night and government accounts and police patrol cars emblazoned with the #ArabstoMars hashtag.
The UAE this week also projected onto the Dubai night sky images of Mars' two moons—Phobos and Deimos—to allow residents "to see what the probe sees".
The wealthy Gulf state now becomes the fifth space entity to reach Mars, with the China mission due to become the sixth on Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
The more the merrier—international competition in space is good—and make it harder for Bidet to crush domestic efforts.
The U.A.R. mission control leaders say that they are still hopeful that they will at least discover oil under the Martian surface.
Regards,
Letting Muslims hitchhike to space is stupid.
Whose launch rocket did they use?
The spacecraft was assembled at LASP in Boulder, Colorado, where Emirati engineers worked and learned from their American counterparts. It was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan with a Japanese rocket, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA launch vehicle.
And the UAE space agency seems to be filled with Indians and Europeans.
I’m sure you can find out.
Perhaps...but it’s history now. They will continue.
Thank you Cronos. Good info.
If they wanted to look at sand they could have done that from a hot air balloon.
Doesn't make sense. The expression "let alone" can be used only in negatives. E.g, "I wasn't even merely happy - let alone overjoyed!"
In contrast, what does it mean to say, essentially, "It was significant, let alone successful?"
Regards,
Two more unmanned spacecraft from the U.S. and China are following close behind this one, set to arrive at Mars over the next several days.... All three missions were launched in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars.
It’s been said about 60% of all Mars missions have ended in failure, crashing, burning up or otherwise falling short in a testament to the complexity of interplanetary travel and the difficulty of making a descent through Mars’ thin atmosphere.
The U.S. has done this eight times, the first almost 45 years ago. The Arab “Hope” joins six spacecraft already operating around Mars: three U.S., two European and one Indian.
Apparently the country’s first astronaut rocketed into space in 2019, ‘hitching a ride’ to the International Space Station ‘with the Russians’.....
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