Hope Probe to enter science orbit of Mars on March 22

Yamama Badwan, Staff Reporter

The Hope Probe is geared up to enter the science orbit of the Red Planet on Monday following the success of the work team of the Emirates Mars Mission in completing 120 checks of the probe’s systems before the shift to the science orbit scheduled to begin on Mar.22.

The team took as many as 825 photos to perform calibration of the scientific equipment of the probe to ensure that they are operating efficiently.

The Mars science orbit will be elliptical and each cycle around the planet will take up to 40 hours.

Subsequently, the daily contact with the ground station will be scheduled so that the project team can carry out the operations related to downloading the chain of commands and the data of all operations.

During its presence in the orbit, the probe is planned to convey a large collection of scientific data on the Martian atmosphere and dynamics, which will reach by the end of the mission more than 1 terabyte of scientific data in its initial form.

Last week, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, shared a breathtaking video of Olympus Mountain on Mars.

“Olympus Mons… Highest peak in our solar system.. Almost three times the height of Mount Everest. Taken by Hope Probe at 13,000 km above Mars surface,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote.

UAE's Hope Probe has successfully entered Mars' orbit on February 9, 2021, mission control officials said.

At that time Sheikh Hamdan, who is the General Supervisor of the Hope Probe, had said exploring Mars has become a reality thanks to the determined efforts of a group of youth who dedicated their time and efforts to serve humanity.

“These youth are a source of pride for the Arab and Muslim nation,” he had said.

“Reaching Mars is not impossible for us. The word ‘impossible’ has no place in our dictionary,” Sheikh Hamdan added.

Hope Mars Mission team also shared the video and explained how the image was captured by Hope Probe.

“The EXI captured this high-resolution image of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, from an altitude of 13,007 km. The colour to the North, towards the top right of the image, is created from a composite of the red, green & blue EXI images!” tweeted Mars Mission team.

The unmanned craft, called Amal, Arabic for Hope, reached the end of its nearly seven-month, 300-million-mile journey and began circling the red planet, where it will gather detailed data on Mars’ atmosphere.

The orbiter fired its main engines for 27 minutes in an intricate, high-stakes maneuver that slowed the craft enough for it to be captured by Mars’ gravity.