UAE's mission to Mars in numbers

The UAE isn’t afraid to take on big projects – but touching down on another planet is one that raised a few eyebrows.

With the nation’s Hope probe now just days away from reaching Mars’ orbit, excitement is building across the country and around the world.

It’s been an unbelievable journey thus far, with some serious numbers orbiting the voyage.

Time Out has taken a closer look. Here’s the UAE’s mission to Mars in numbers.

493 million

The distance in kilometres between Earth and Mars, most of which is now behind the Hope probe as it prepares for the final stages of its mission. To put that into context, that’s equal to 12,325 trips around the world. That would put a serious dent in your Careem account.

7

Hope probe has been traversing the nothingness of space for a while now – seven months to be exact. Kudos to mission control for their expertise in guiding Hope to its target destination.

687

A year on Mars is a little long than it is here on Earth – 322 days longer in fact. Hope probe will explore the climactic dynamics of the Red Planet in daily and seasonal timescales for a full Martian year, an endeavour that has never been pursued by any previous mission to Mars.

121,000

Think that Lambo tearing down Sheikh Zayed Road has some horsepower? Wait until you get a load of the Hope probe in full throttle. The spacecraft is currently hurtling along at a whopping 121,000kph. Now that would trigger a flash of any speed camera.

1,000

A primary mission objective is to harvest new data about our near planetary neighbour. The probe will gather and send back 1,000GB of crucial information to the UAE’s Science Data Centre via different ground stations spread around the world.

0

We’d love to be partying away at space brunch with space pals, but we’re still a little way from that becoming a reality. Which is why the Hope probe is an unmanned flight. Seven months in a spaceship doesn’t sound overly appealing just now. Sign us up when it’s a 20-minute turnaround.