(MENAFN – Khaleej Times) When the Hope UAE probe fires all mackerel for the most important move toward Martian orbit, the hard work of the team that developed their systems comes from scratch.
During Hope’s upcoming Mars Orbit attack (MOI) – the most critical phase of the mission – the spacecraft’s system will be tested for the first time for nearly 30 minutes straight.
‘The MOI is one of the most dangerous levels in the mission. The main reason behind it is because for the first time we are using our system and platform developed for deep space to accomplish this task for a long time. The initial stage was the emergency stage, but then we used the MHI surgeon. A surgeon with tradition and level of success said Omran Sharaf, project director of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) at a media briefing on Tuesday.
The EMM team had created their own motion system and control systems and software to take Hope from Earth to deep space – all the way to Mars, Sharaf explained.
The direction from the government from day one was very clear: You have to build it without buying it. This is the system built by our EMM team with our partners that will be used in space for 27 minutes non-stop. During this time the spacecraft’s speed drops from the travel speed of 121,000kmph down to 18,000 kmph to achieve MoI. So there are high risks at all levels, he said.
Hope is expected to enter the Martian orbit on February 9 at 7.42pm (UAE time).
During a complex MoI shift, failure scenarios are possible. Assuming that one of the top six Delta-V thrusters of the Hope probe stops working, various contingency plans are ready, said Suhail Butti Al Dhafri, deputy project manager for the spacecraft.
‘If one of the thrushes that normally works in pairs fails, the probe can work with the other two pairs of its thrushes. If six thrusters operate, then the spacecraft will operate for 27 minutes and if two thrusters stop, they will continue firing for a longer period during MOI, Al Dhafri said.
‘Our target is not set by time. Our target is for Al Amal to enter Martian orbit even if that takes longer, believing there are two thrusters off.
Communication is crucial at every step to understand what is happening on the spacecraft, he said.
There could be another situation, assuming the spacecraft is repositioning itself. It will stop operation and restart and redesign. This is also considered one of the situations. But everything so far looks right and normal, because we established contact with him Tuesday (morning). It is moving towards a Mars orbit, Al Dhafri added.
All commands were tested on a model satellite on the ground, called FlatSat, to measure the reactions.
It describes a situation with a high fidelity representation of the flight model, including hardware and software. FlatSat provides space for risk reduction procedures, testing and testing.
Ali Juma Alsuwaidi, Flatsat’s engineer, noted: ‘FlatSat is being used even more in this period to run various scenarios similar to the MOI. The unforeseen scenarios on FlatSat are made to test the capabilities and to better understand the various scenarios involved in this event. I think we’ve run a number of tests on FlatSat and the spacecraft, making us feel confident as a team for this upcoming event next week.
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