The Emirates Mars Exploration Mission “Hope Probe”, the first exploration mission carried out by an Arab country, announced a series of new and unique explorations derived from the first measurements of the Martian atmosphere over the course of an entire Martian year.
This announcement comes in celebration of the 3th anniversary of the collection of scientific data on the Red Planet by the probe, which confirms the achievement of the stated scientific goals of the mission.
His Excellency Salem Butti Al Qubaisi, Director General of the Emirates Space Agency, said: “The UAE mission to explore Mars was designed to create a national challenge that contributes to accelerating and developing not only the country’s engineering capabilities, but also to revolutionize our educational and research system and enhance our innovation, and there is no doubt that the mission succeeded in achieving this.” “It exceeded our expectations.”
He added: “From the beginning, the leadership of the UAE made it clear that the mission of the Emirates Mars Exploration Project must make significant scientific contributions, and we can now say that the mission not only achieved its basic scientific goals, but also greatly exceeded them.”
The Emirates Mars Exploration Project mission was designed to achieve three scientific goals and answer the questions posed by scientists in the Mars Exploration Analysis and Planning Group (MEPAG), where the “Hope Probe” was launched to monitor seasonal and diurnal changes in the atmosphere and annual changes, including those resulting from solar influence, Which leads to the disappearance of the upper layer of the Martian atmosphere, especially hydrogen and oxygen, in addition to studying the temporal and spatial behavior of the red planet.
Hoor Al Mazmi, Director of the Emirates Mars Exploration Project, said: “We can say with confidence that the Emirates Mars Mission has significantly exceeded its stated basic scientific objectives. Not only have we achieved our scientific objectives, but the journey of the Hope Probe has been extended, and we have contributed to achieving new and unique scientific discoveries.” “Including revealing new forms of Martian aurora, in addition to providing new and more comprehensive images of the smaller and less known Martian moon Deimos.”
Mohsen Al-Awadhi, Director of the Space Mission Department at the Emirates Space Agency, said: “The unique “elliptical orbit” of the Hope Probe supports these unique explorations, providing us with a complete picture of the dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere every nine days. This has enabled us to obtain an amazing imaging of the changes in… “The atmosphere of Mars day and night, across seasons, and over the course of an entire Martian year.”
On the third anniversary of the probe’s arrival into orbit, the “Hope Probe” scientific team shared a set of distinguished images, including an animation illustrating the changes in oxygen emissions over the course of more than one Martian year, which were captured by the Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS). The data was collected during Mars local time between 9 am and 3 pm, which revealed atomic oxygen emissions at a wavelength of 130.4 nanometers, highlighting the active dynamics of the upper atmosphere of Mars and the processes that lead to its gradual escape into space.
Ultraviolet spectrophotometer footage highlighted changes in oxygen levels during a Martian year as the planet approaches the sun, which had never been seen in this way before this mission.
In addition, the science team displayed images from the Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) that show daily global maps of dust and ice over the course of an entire Martian year, facilitating the analysis and deep understanding of the daily variation of these elements.
At the conclusion of this series, the scientific team presented images from the Exploration Digital Camera (EXI) showing the optical changes of the planet, during a series of 12 images taken during an entire Martian year, and reflecting the effects of seasonal changes on Mars.
The Hope Probe carries three innovative scientific devices: the EXI digital exploration camera, which captures high-resolution color images of the planet Mars, and is also used to measure ice and ozone in the lower atmosphere.
It also includes the EMIRS infrared spectrometer, which measures temperatures and the distribution of dust, water vapor, and ice clouds in the lower atmosphere, and the EMUS ultraviolet spectrometer, which measures oxygen and carbon monoxide in the thermal layer of Mars, and hydrogen and oxygen in the Martian exosphere.
The launch of the Emirates Mars Exploration Project (Hope Probe) was the culmination of efforts to transfer and develop knowledge, which began in 2006, at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, and is the result of close cooperation between a team of Emirati scientists, researchers and engineers, and international partners around the world, to develop the necessary capabilities. To design and engineer space missions.
The weight of the Hope Probe is about 1,350 kilograms, which is the equivalent of a small four-wheel drive car, and it was designed and developed by engineers at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in cooperation with academic partners, including the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Arizona State University and the University of California at Berkeley. .
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