Due to the great possibilities of a habitable environment, the red planet Mars has become the most intriguing planet in our universe. And this red planet took a glimpse of UAE's Hope spacecraft on February 9 this year, which created history because this accomplishment made UAE the first Arab country to reach Mars. United Arab Emirates Mars mission's ‘Hope Spacecraft’ reached the red planet at 7:42 p.m. on 9th February, and it sent its signal back to Earth just over half an hour later. The team of scientists at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai (MBRSC) broke out in celebrations when the Hope Spacecraft entered Mars.

The Hope Mars Mission is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency's driving space exploration mission to Mars. The title “Hope” translates al-Arab in Arabic, and it was chosen because it sends a message of optimism to millions of young Arabs. This mission was being conducted by a group of Emirati engineers in collaboration with some foreign research institutions. The developments, design, and operations were led by the MBRSC and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, with support from Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of California, Berkeley. The resulting Mars mission data will be communicated voluntarily with more than 200 institutions across the world. 

To UAE, the Hope Spacecraft's Mars mission has cost around $200 million. And when it performed a successful orbit entry maneuver on 9 February 2021, UAE became the first Arab country and the fifth country to reach Mars. Likewise, UAE also became the second country to victoriously enter Mars' orbit on its first attempt. The Hope Spacecraft assigned by UAE has captured remarkable images of Mars during the first-ever Arab interplanetary space mission from a distance of around 15,500 miles. The Hope spacecraft was launched on 19 July 2020 and it reached Mars on February 9 this year. Hope was the first of three space missions sent toward Mars during the July 2020 Mars launch window, with exploration missions similarly launched by the national space agency of China, Tianwen-1 and United States' Mars 2020 and its Perseverance rover. The Spacecraft was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan with a Japanese rocket, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA launch vehicle. These three are expected to arrive at Mars in February 2021, and the Emirates Mars Mission was the first of the three to enter the red planet. One picture was also shared in a tweet by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This space mission hopes to provide the most complete pictures of the Martian atmosphere yet.

The Hope spacecraft aims to research the weather cycles on Mars, and weather phenomena in the lower atmosphere like dust storms, and how the weather varies in various regions of Mars. It will similarly collect data about atmospheric hydrogen and oxygen loss and other possible reasons behind the red planet's immense climate changes. This mission is also a contribution to a knowledge-based economy in the UAE. Moreover, the chair of the UAE Space Agency and the Emirati Minister of State for Advanced Sciences Sarah Al-Amiri told DW that, “Our science team is 80% women. They are based on merit and based on what they contribute towards the design and development of the mission”. She also said that women are making up exceedingly promising in such space missions of UAE.

This year, the UAE is celebrating 50 years since its independence from the United Kingdom. They are aiming for a Mars settlement by 2117 and their latest Mars mission is similarly the part of the UAE's extensive actions to enhance its technological capacities and reduce the economic dependency on oil. The UAE is specializing to stimulate the phase of development in technological ways. And it hopes that this thriving space mission will ultimately enable its structure and develop complex systems in other industries as well.
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Reference -

• www.bbc.com
• www.emiratesmarsmission.ae
• www.space.gov.ae
• www.amp.dw.com