UAE’s Mars mission highlights power of Hope

A gargantuan mission calls for an extraordinary vision. The UAE is blessed with a leadership that believes the journey of development will always remain a race for excellence.

The successful transfer of the first Regional Mars probe from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai to the launch site on Tanegashima island in Japan, in an 83-hour operation under the supervision of a team of Emirati engineers, once again underscores the UAE’s abilities to not only set high goals but make determined efforts to achieve them.

As His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, mentioned on Twitter: “Despite global flight suspensions & health precautions, our engineers are working according to schedule to complete the region’s top space science project. The probe was developed in 6 years, less than the usual global period of 10, and at half the cost. We aim to launch in July.”

“The Hope Probe represents a turning point for the Arab and Islamic world in the space sector. Reaching Mars is not only a scientific goal; it also sends a message to our future generation that we are capable and nothing is impossible with hope.”

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.

The mission has pertinently been named “Hope” and Sheikh Mohammed had lucidly elucidated the reasons behind the name earlier.

As he put it, “This probe represents hope for millions of young Arabs looking for a better future. There is no future, no achievement, no life, without hope.”

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.

The probe will create mankind’s first integrated model of the Red Planet’s atmosphere. The spacecraft will send back to earth over 1,000 gigabytes of new Mars data. This information will be received in the Science Data Center in the UAE through different ground stations spread around the world.

These data will subsequently be catalogued and analysed in the UAE by the Emirates Mars Mission science team, and then shared with more than 200 institutions worldwide for the benefit of thousands of space specialists.

One thing that is unmistakably evident in this great endeavour is the commitment of the leadership to promote scientific talent.

The support offered by the administrative machinery to such projects like the mars mission reinforces the belief that the leaders leave no stone unturned when it comes to helping the scientific community pursue dreams and reach for the stars.

Future generations can reap the rewards of such investment in science and knowledge.

As Sheikh Mohammed mentioned earlier, “The Emirates Mars Mission will be a great contribution to human knowledge, a milestone for Arab civilisation, and a real investment for future generations.”