UAE’s Hope Mars mission is intended to collect world-class science while inspiring the youth of the Middle East.
A Mars orbiter built by the United Arab Emirates in partnership with U. S. universities shot into space atop a Japanese H-2A rocket on Sunday, kicking off a seven-month voyage to the red planet. It is the first interplanetary mission attempted by an Arab nation and the first of three Mars missions scheduled for take off in the next two weeks.
The UAE’s $200 million “Hope” mission was designed with two major goals in mind: To study the martian atmosphere with three state-of-the-art instruments and to provide a “moonshot moment” for the youth of the Middle East, serving as inspiration to pursue careers in math and science.
“The objective was basically to use this mission to cause a disruptive change in the mindset of the youth, to create a research and development culture to support the creation of an innovative and creative and a competitive knowledge-based economy,” said Omran Sharaf, the Hope project manager.
“So it’s about the future of our economy. It’s about the post-oil economy. (UAE leadership) wanted to inspire the young generation to go into STEM and use this mission as a catalyst to cause disruptive change and shifts in multiple sectors…. That’s why they went with the Mars shot. (They) wanted to create an ecosystem that basically supports the creation of an advanced science and technology sector.”
Running five days late because of threatening weather, the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-2A rocket, equipped with two strap-on boosters for extra power, thundered to life at 5:58 p.m. EDT Sunday (6:58 a.m. Monday local time) and streaked away from a seaside firing stand at the picturesque Tanegashima Space Center.
The climb out of the dense lower atmosphere went smoothly and the rocket’s second stage reached its planned “parking orbit” 11-and-a-half minutes after launch.
A second engine firing about 50 minutes later was planned to put the Mars probe on its seven-month trajectory to the red planet. A few minutes after release from the second stage, at an altitude of about 240 miles, Hope’s two solar panels were expected to unfold followed by an initial telemetry downlink.
