UAE’s historic Hope Mars  

Context:

• The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars entered the orbit of the red planet, seven months after the Emirati-built ‘Hope Probe’ was launched from Tanegashima in Japan.
• UAE has become the fifth country after the US, Russia, China, the EU, and India, to reach the Martian orbit.

What is the UAE’s Hope Probe?

• Emirates Mars Mission was developed and operated by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in collaboration with the University California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and the University of Colorado-Boulder in the United States.
• It was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-II A rocket and its launch became the 45th for H-II A.
• Carrying three instruments, including a high-resolution camera and a spectrometer, the spacecraft is on an orbital mission to collect data on Martian climate dynamics and help scientists understand why Mars’s atmosphere is decaying into space.
• Hope is the UAE’s fourth space mission and first interplanetary one.

What is the objective of the mission?

• The primary objective of the mission is to study Martian weather dynamics.
• By correlating the lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere conditions, the probe will look into how weather changes the escape of hydrogen and oxygen into space.
• By measuring how much hydrogen and oxygen is spilling into space, scientists will be able to look into why Mars lost so much of its early atmosphere and liquid water.
• Over the next two months, the spacecraft will continue to move into its final orbital position — around 20,000-43,000 kilometres about the planet.
• It is expected to create the first complete portrait of the planet’s atmosphere.
• With the information gathered during the mission, scientists will have a better understanding of the climate dynamics of different layers of Mars’ atmosphere.

How did the Hope Probe swing into orbit around Mars?

• In order to be captured by Mars’ gravity, the spacecraft had to pull off an intricate braking manoeuvre known as the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) to slow down its speed considerably.
• It was approaching the planet at over 120,000km/h (relative to the Sun) and had to execute a 27-minute burn on its braking engines so that it could avoid the risk of missing its orbit or getting lost in deep space.
• The manoeuvre was performed by the craft’s six Delta V Thrusters in the required time frame, however, the ground controllers on Earth received the confirmation only 11 minutes later.
• The delay was caused due to the time it took for the radio signals to cover the 190-million-km distance between Earth and Mars.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-uaes-historic-hope-mars-probe-aims-to-achieve-7182832/lite/