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Emirati men watch the launch of the “Amal” or “Hope” space probe at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai. Photo: AP Photo

First Arab space mission to Mars launches from Japan

  • The Hope probe is expected to reach Mars’ orbit in February 2021, marking the 50th anniversary of the UAE, an alliance of seven emirates
  • Two other Mars missions are planned in the coming days by the US and China, but the UAE one will not land on the Red Planet
Space
The first Arab space mission to Mars, an unmanned probe dubbed “Hope”, blasted off from Japan on Monday on a mission to reveal more about the atmosphere of the Red Planet.

The Japanese rocket carrying the probe developed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan right on schedule at 6.58am local time.

The launch of the probe, known as “Al-Amal” in Arabic, had twice been delayed because of bad weather, but the Monday lift-off appeared smooth and successful.

An hour later, a live feed showed people applauding in the Japanese control room as the probe successfully detached.

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First Arab space mission to Mars launches from Japan

First Arab space mission to Mars launches from Japan

In Dubai, the launch was met with rapturous excitement and blanket media coverage, with the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest skyscraper – lit up hours before lift-off with a symbolic 10-second countdown in anticipation.

“We proudly announce the successful launch of the Hope probe,” Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said in a tweet. “The ground control station in Dubai has received the first signal from the probe after its solar panels were successfully deployed to charge its batteries. Our 493 million km journey to the Red Planet starts here.”

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said the country watched the launch with “pride and joy” as the nation embarked on a “new chapter in space”.

The UAE Mars mission’s deputy project manager Sarah Al-Amiri declared it “an indescribable feeling” to see the probe blasting off.

“This is the future of the UAE,” Amiri, who is also minister of state for advanced sciences, told Dubai TV from the launch site.

“This mission is an important milestone for the UAE and the region,” said Yousuf Hamad AlShaibani, director of the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, at a post-launch press conference in Japan.

“It has already inspired millions of youth regionally to dream big and work hard to achieve what seems to be impossible,” he said.

“The launch vehicle trajectory was executed as planned and separation of the Hope spacecraft was confirmed,” rocket manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said.

The Emirati project is one of three racing to Mars, including Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States, taking advantage of a period when the Earth and Mars are nearest.

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In October, Mars will be a comparatively short 62 million kilometres from Earth, according to Nasa.

“Hope” is expected to reach Mars’ orbit by February 2021, marking the 50th anniversary of the unification of the UAE, an alliance of seven emirates.

Unlike the two other Mars ventures scheduled for this year, it will not land on the Red Planet, but instead orbit it for a whole Martian year, or 687 days.

While the objective of the Mars mission is to provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in the Red Planet’s atmosphere, the probe is a foundation for a much bigger goal – building a human settlement on Mars within the next 100 years.

Dubai has hired architects to imagine what a Martian city might look like and build it in its desert as “Science City”, at a cost of around US$135 million.

The UAE also wants the project to serve as a source of inspiration for Arab youth, in a region too often wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises.

On Twitter, the UAE’s government declared the probe launch a “message of pride, hope and peace to the Arab region, in which we renew the golden age of Arab and Islamic discoveries”.

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Several dozen probes – most of them American – have set off for the Red Planet since the 1960s. Many never made it that far, or failed to land.

The drive to explore Mars flagged until the confirmation less than 10 years ago that water once flowed on its surface.

Emirati men at the mission control centre for the Hope Mars probe at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai. Photo: AFP

Omran Sharaf, the mission’s project manager, has said the “Hope” probe will offer a special perspective on the elusive planet.

“What is unique about this mission is that for the first time the scientific community around the world will have an holistic view of the Martian atmosphere at different times of the day at different seasons,” Sharaf told a pre-launch briefing.

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“We have a strategy to contribute to the global effort in developing technologies and science work that will help one day if humanity decides to put a human on Mars.”

The UAE already has nine functioning satellites in orbit, with plans to launch another eight in coming years. And in September, it sent the first Emirati into space on a mission to the International Space Station.

But the UAE’s ambitions go well beyond that, with a goal of building a human settlement on Mars by 2117.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: lift-off for first arab space mission to Mars
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