Everything you need to know about the UAE's mission to Mars

An out-of-this-world journey will come to a thrilling conclusion next week as the UAE’s Hope probe begins its final approach to the Red Planet.

Mars has long been touted as man’s first pit-stop on its inter-planetary tour of the universe, and the UAE is among the first nations to get within a stone’s throw of Earth’s nearest neighbour.

The final descent is seven months in the making, and Hope probe (fingers crossed) will successfully touch down on Martian soil on Tuesday February 9.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai tweeted that the probe has a 50-50 chance of making it into Mars’ orbit, but that “we achieved 90% of our goals in building new knowledge.”

Here is everything you need to know about the UAE’s mission to Mars.

What’s it all about?

Blasting off from Tanegashima Space Centre in southwestern Japan on July 20, 2020, Hope probe launched with a number of key mission objectives.

First was the pursuit of new insights and understanding of the terrain and atmosphere on Mars.

A host of data collecting instruments – including The Emirates eXploration Imager, The Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer, and The Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer – are being deployed on board to capture and record critical pieces of information that will help uncover new secrets of the Red Planet.

The mission also aims to train and prepare UAE scientists for future work in space exploration.

Why Mars?

Hope probe may have been hurtling through space for the past seven months, but its journey began some six years prior to that.

It all started with an idea posed at a Cabinet retreat in Sir Baniyas Island in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2013, when leadership held a brainstorm on ways to celebrate the country’s 50th anniversary.

Seven months later, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, announced that the nation would be going to Mars, issuing a decree to establish the UAE Space Agency.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, established in 2015, was tasked with the execution and supervision of all stages of design, development, as well as the launch of the probe, while the UAE Space Agency funded and supervised necessary procedures for the implementation.

The rest, as they say, is history – some of it in the making as you read this.

Will Hope probe land on Martian soil?

Sheikh Mohammed confirmed that the mission has a 50% success rate in entering Mars’ orbit.

The final entry is complex, but the mission has successfully completed a number of other tricky maneuvers through the course of its space flight.

Notable milestones include navigating the challenges of a safe launch at the height of the pandemic, safe discharging of protective fairing, implementing awakening procedures for on-board systems and adjusting trajectory for optimal passage to Mars.

We’re now just days away from the conclusion of a 493 million kilometer journey.

Stay close to Time Out for the latest on the first interplanetary mission by an Arab nation.