Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed sign Hope Probe structure.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, signed the “Hope Probe,” structure, the UAE’s Mars mission programme, on Sunday.

Sheikh Mohammed took to Twitter and said, “Today me and brother Mohamed Bin Zayed signed the last piece of the outer structure of the Hope Probe... the first Arab-Islamic probe that will reach Mars… We carved the phrase "the power of hope shortens the distance between the earth and the sky" to send a message to all Arab youth that we are able to succeed and compete and that we do not lose the power of hope, that move the mountains”

The Hope Probe, which was developed with the minds and hands of the people of the Emirates, will be fully controlled from the lands of the state, and will start on its historic journey towards Mars in July 2020 to reach its destination in February 2021 in conjunction with the Emirates celebrations of the golden jubilee of its foundation covering a total of 600 million km.

Sheikh Mohammed added, “The Hope Probe is a message to the UAE’s people, to its residents, to our brothers in the Arab world and to our friends around the world that believing in the youth and investing in their capabilities is the best bet for any country that has a determination to make a distinguished future. Today, we celebrate and take pride in the elite of Emirati minds, scientists and engineers who to take us to the space”

The Hope Probe will be the first probe to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers when it reaches the red planet in 2021. It will help answer key questions about the global Martian atmosphere and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of 1 Martian year.

Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre is responsible for the execution and supervision of all stages of the design, development and launch of the Hope Probe in 2020.

The UAE Space Agency is funding and supervising procedures and necessary details for the implementation of this project. Following a journey of several months, the probe is expected to enter the Red Planet’s orbit in 2021, coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of the Union.