Life on Mars and the Hope Probe UAE’s mission

Technology has been increasing for years that perhaps a century ago no one could have imagined that the future would be like this. With all the computers, phones, and other useful devices made by us humans, we have been taken out of reality and started thinking big for the future, like what exactly?

Hope is a Mars orbiter from the United Arab Emirates that arrived in February 2021. Hope is studying the climate of Mars to help us understand what Mars was like when its atmosphere could support life. Hope is the Arab world’s first mission to another planet

Researchers say life is possible on Mars, but why are we so focused on creating a life there? The population of the earth is increasing by at least 100 million per year so till now the earth is holding 7.9 billion people. Global warming is increasing due to the burning of fossil fuels and the production of greenhouse gases, so it is understandable why scientists are creating backup plans if anything happens to Earth.

Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are investing at least $500 billion together. A tool called ISRU, also known as In situ Resource Utilization, could be used to find more resources Mars could provide us. Mineral resources such as iron, titanium, nickel, aluminum, sulphur, chlorine and calcium are some of the mineral resources of Mars. Silicon dioxide is the most common element on Mars.

So has anyone landed on Mars? Which countries have orbited Mars? As of now, no one has landed because the distance between Mars and Earth is 315.06 million km. India, China, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Soviet Union, America and Europe are the only countries that have orbited Mars. Now let’s talk about the plans of Mars. Elon Musk is thinking of colonizing Mars and forming a government there. Inventions like landers and rovers have been providing us with information about more underground resources on Mars. Humans may be able to live on Mars by 2060.

On 20 July 2020, The United Arab Emirates has become the first Arab country to launch its spacecraft on Mars. The spacecraft is called the Hope Probe and the type of rocket used to get to Mars was the MHI H2A. It took at least 7 months to reach Mars and cover a distance of 495 million kilometers to orbit it. It took 200 days at a speed of 121,000 km/h. During the launch, Hope weighed around 1.5 tonnes. It is 2.7 meters wide and 2.9 meters long. Solar panels are 3.9M x 7.9M. 800 kg of rocket fuel also known as hydrazine is mixed with hydrogen and nitrogen.

Hope will be able to provide us with information about the Martian atmosphere (the flaky gas surrounding Mars) and answer some unresolved questions about the lack of hydrogen and oxygen. There are sensors that will track hydrogen and oxygen and also check the levels of the atmosphere. The hope is that the probe will be able to complete one orbit every 55 hours.

The instruments used in Hope are the Emirates Exploration Imager which helps us get a better view of Mars and its low atmosphere, the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer which helps detect carbon monoxide and oxygen levels in Mars, Emirates The Mars Infrared Spectrometer will measure dust, clouds of ice and water on Mars. It is expected that the probe will orbit Mars for 687 days. The main objective of the HOPE probe is to detect severe climate change, the atmosphere, and the loss of hydrogen and oxygen.