Emirati 'Hope' probe heads for Mars

The first Arab space mission to Mars blasted off from Japan on Monday on a mission to unravel the secrets of weather on the Red Planet. The unmanned probe named Al-Amal -- Arabic for Hope -- took off after several weather delays, marking the next step in the United Arab Emirates' ambitious space programme. Here are some facts and figures about the oil-rich nation's project, which draws inspiration from the Middle East's golden age of cultural and scientific achievements. The UAE, made up of seven emirates including the capital Abu Dhabi and freewheeling Dubai, has nine functioning satellites in orbit with plans to launch another eight in coming years. In September, it sent the first Emirati into space -- Hazza al-Mansouri, who was part of a three-member crew. They blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, returning home after an eight-day mission in which he became the first Arab to visit 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. In the meantime, it plans to create a white-domed "Science City" in the deserts outside Dubai, to simulate Martian conditions and develop the technology needed to colonise the planet. Under a national space strategy launched last year, the UAE is also eyeing future mining projects beyond Earth and space tourism, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with Richard Branson's space tourism company Virgin Galactic.

- Hope's journey -

The next milestone was the launch of the "Hope" probe, which officials say is designed to inspire the region's youth and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs.

The 1,350-kilogramme (2,970-pound) probe -- about the size of an SUV -- lifted off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on Monday at 6:58 am local time (2158 GMT Sunday) after poor weather delayed initial plans.

The probe successfully detached from the Japanese launch rocket about an hour after blast-off, with a UAE space official hailing the launch as an "important milestone for the UAE and the region."

Unlike the other two Mars ventures scheduled for this year, including Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States, the UAE's probe will not land on the Red Planet but orbit it for a whole Martian year -- 687 days.

Hope will take seven months to travel the 493 million kilometres (307 million miles) to Mars, in time to mark the 50th anniversary of the emirates' union in 2021.

Once in orbit, one loop will take 55 hours at an average speed of 121,000 kph, while contact with the UAE command and control centre will be limited to six to eight hours twice a week.

- Study and inspire -

Three instruments mounted on the probe will provide a picture of the Mars atmosphere throughout the Martian year.

The first is an infrared spectrometer to measure the lower atmosphere and analyse the temperature structure.

The second is a high-resolution imager that will provide information about ozone levels. And the third, an ultraviolet spectrometer, is set to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 kilometres from the surface.

Understanding the atmospheres of other planets will allow for a better understanding of the Earth's climate, officials say.

But the project is also designed to inspire a region too often beset by turmoil, and recall its heyday of scientific advances during the Middle Ages.

"The UAE wanted to send a strong message to the Arab youth and to remind them of the past, that we used to be generators of knowledge," Omran Sharaf, the mission's project manager, told AFP.

First Arab mission to Mars designed to inspire youth

The first Arab space mission to Mars, armed with probes to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, is designed to inspire the region's youth and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, officials said Tuesday. The unmanned probe Al-Amal -- Hope in Arabic -- is to blast off from a Japanese space centre on July 15, with preparations now in their final stages. The project is the next giant step for the United Arab Emirates, whose colossal skyscrapers and mega-projects have put it on the world map. The UAE sent its first astronaut into space last year and is also planning to build a "Science City" to replicate conditions on Mars, where it hopes to build a human settlement by 2117. Omran Sharaf, the mission's project manager, said that apart from the ambitious scientific goals, the mission was designed to hark back to the region's golden age of cultural and scientific achievements. "The UAE wanted to send a strong message to the Arab youth and to remind them of the past, that we used to be generators of knowledge," he told AFP. "People of different backgrounds and religion coexisted and shared a similar identity," he said of the Arab world, where many countries are today wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises. "Put your differences aside, focus on building the region, you have a rich history and you can do much more."

- Narrow window -

Sarah al-Amiri, the mission's deputy project manager, said it was imperative that the project have a long-term scientific impact.

"It is not a short-lived mission, but rather one that continues throughout the years and produces valuable scientific findings -- be it by researchers in the UAE or globally," she told AFP.

She said that the probe will provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in Mars' atmosphere with the use of three scientific instruments.

The first is an infrared spectrometer to measure the planet's lower atmosphere and analyse the temperature structure.

The second, a high-resolution imager that will provide information about the ozone; and a third, an ultraviolet spectrometer to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 kilometres from the surface.

The three tools will allow researchers to observe the Red Planet "at all times of the day and observe all of Mars during those different times", Amiri said.

"Something we want to better understand, and that's important for planetary dynamics overall, is the reasons for the loss of the atmosphere and if the weather system on Mars actually has an impact on loss of hydrogen and oxygen," she said, referring to the two components that make up water.

Sharaf said that fuelling of the probe is to begin next week.

It is scheduled to launch on July 15 from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre and return to Earth in February 2021, depending on many variables including the weather.

"If we miss the launch opportunity, which is between mid-July and early August, then we'd have to wait for two years for another window," Sharaf said.

But hopes are high that the mission will take place as scheduled, and not be derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a new sign of warming ties between Israel and Gulf Arab nations, the Jewish state Tuesday wished the UAE success with the mission.

We "hope this step will contribute towards deeper cooperation between all countries in the region," its foreign ministry's "Israel in the Gulf" Twitter account wrote in Arabic.

UAE Names First Astronaut to Fly to ISS on Board Russian Soyuz Vehicle

The United Arab Emirates' Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) said that Hazzaa AlMansoori will be the country's first astronaut to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on board the Russian Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft. "@MBRSpaceCentre announces that it has selected Hazzaa AlMansoori as the prime astronaut and Sultan AlNeyadi as the backup astronaut for the International Space Station (ISS) mission. The Emirati astronaut Hazzaa AlMansoori will fly for an eight-day space mission to ISS aboard a Soyuz-MS 15 spacecraft on 25 September 2019", the center wrote on Twitter late on Friday. The flight of the UAE mission to the ISS was initially scheduled for this April. However, it was postponed due to the aborted launch of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft last October. Roscosmos and the MBRSC concluded a deal to fly the first UAE astronaut to the ISS last June. Last September, the two astronauts from the Middle Eastern country began training for their mission. Meanwhile, Sergey Krikalev, director of manned spaceflight at Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos has told Sputnik that the UAE is planning to buy a Soyuz spacecraft and launch services from Russia to send two domestic astronauts to orbit in one mission.

According to Krikalev, if UAE signs a contract with Roscosmos, an additional Soyuz spacecraft will be manufactured, as it cannot be part of the Russian manned program for delivering Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station.