The United Arab Emirates’ Mars probe has just successfully established itself in orbit around Mars.

Great joy in the United Arab Emirates. The very first Mars mission is an immediate success. The Hope Probe, launched in July 2020, is now orbiting Mars. It is a huge first for the United Arab Emirates, which until recently had only experience launching Earth-observing satellites.

exciting
The Hope Probe was launched from Japan last summer. After a successful launch, a journey of 480 million kilometers awaited. That too went well and now, after having spent 204 days in interplanetary space, the Hope Probe has arrived at its destination.

That was certainly not self-evident; it is quite an art to slow down a fast-traveling probe and force it into orbit around the red planet. This afternoon the Hope Probe was still heading for Mars at a speed of 121,000 kilometers per hour. By activating the thrusters, that speed had to be reduced to 18,000 kilometers per hour in less than 45 minutes. To make things even more exciting, the Hope Probe temporarily disappeared behind Mars during braking, preventing communication. A little after five, contact could be made again and the redeeming message followed that the probe had slowed down sufficiently and is now in orbit around Mars.

Mission
The Hope Probe will investigate the Martian atmosphere from this orbit. It consists of many layers, of which we still do not know the details. With help from Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS for short) Hope Probe will conduct research into the interaction between the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere. It is hoped that it will provide more insight into exactly how atmospheric gases escape from that atmosphere. Knowing that may also help us understand how Mars transformed from a warm and wet planet with a thick atmosphere to a cold and dry planet with a thin atmosphere. In addition, the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI for short) to take very sharp pictures of the Martian atmosphere and thus get a better picture of the water, ice and dust that is in this atmosphere.

There is more to come
The buttocks squeezing is over for the Arabs; they can look forward to the scientific results of their probe. It is different for the Chinese and Americans. Their probes are still on their way to Mars and are expected there in the coming days. The Chinese Tianwen-1 mission (previously referred to as Huoxing-1) is due to arrive at Mars tomorrow. The mission consists of an orbiter, lander and rover. The latter two will not land on Mars until spring. Meanwhile, an American Mars rover is also on the way; it must set foot on Mars on February 18.

The fact that it is currently so busy on and near the red planet is easy to explain. It has everything to do with the position of Mars in relation to the Earth. Mars is a bit further away from the sun and has an orbital period almost twice as long as our planet. It means that the distance between the Earth and Mars varies: one moment the Earth walks away from Mars, the next it approaches it again. Once every two years the distance between the two celestial bodies is the smallest and that is the ideal time to undertake a mission to Mars. After all, spacecraft can reach the red planet relatively quickly – and with relatively little fuel. That ideal moment was last summer. And then in a short time three Mars missions launched. They now arrive at Mars shortly after each other.–

The Chinese are slightly more experienced than the Arabs; Tianwen-1 is their second Mars mission. It should be noted that the first failed; launched in 2011, the Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 never reached Mars. The Americans have considerably more experience in-house and, in addition to three Mars orbits, there is also an operational Mars rover and lander on Mars at the moment. Perseverance will be added to that fleet and will actively search for traces of life, among other things. The Chinese have a similar objective with their Mars orbiter, lander and rover; the trio must help determine whether life on the red planet – which has already been proven to be habitable in the past – actually existed (or even still is).