The Emirates Mars Mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, today confirmed the launch of its Mars Hope Probe in 7 days – on July 15, 2020 at 5:51 a.m. (JST)/July 14, 2020 at 4:51 a.m. (EST) from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on a Mitsubishi MH-IIA rocket.
The launch will be live streamed at http://www.emm.ae/live
The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) will send the Mars Hope probe to reach and orbit the Red Planet in February 2021.
The Mars Hope Probe will reach Mars orbit in 2021, the 50th anniversary of The Emirates, which became an independent nation on December 2, 1971.
Climate watching
Hope aims to build the first full picture of Mars’ climate throughout the Martian year.
EMM will study the Martian atmosphere, the relationship between the upper layer and lower layer, and for the first time, scientists based in over 200 universities and institutes globally will have access to a holistic view of the Martian atmosphere at different times of the day, through different seasons.
Mars Hope is a fully autonomous spacecraft, carrying three instruments to measure Mars’ atmosphere.
Academic partners
Weighing roughly 2,976 pounds (1,350 kilograms), and approximately the size of a small SUV, the spacecraft was designed and developed by Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) engineers working with academic partners, including the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Arizona State University and the University of California, Berkeley.
MBRSC was founded in 2006 and is home to the UAE National Space Program.