The Hope spacecraft, the UAE’s first mission to Mars launched last July, is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars on Tuesday afternoon, with the control center suspiciously monitoring the spacecraft’s expected slowdown in hopes of avoiding crashes. “Seven years of working with a team of amazing people from several continents depends on the fate of the orbit, and it’s not a simple maneuver,” explained Sarah al-Amiri, the state-of-the-art technology minister who heads the space agency.
If all goes according to plan, the research spacecraft should begin later this year mapping the entire atmosphere of Mars, monitoring the weather and examining the escape of gases from the atmosphere. A day later, Hope is scheduled to enter orbit around the planet, as well as the spacecraft “Tianwen 1” which is the first spacecraft sent by China to Mars. The spacecraft, which over the weekend passed its first photograph of the star, is expected to land on Mars in about three months along with a lander that is supposed to study the composition of the rocks. All this will happen while Tiananmen 1 will continue to document the face of the star.
The climax of the study will come on Thursday next week, when NASA will try to land the Preservation research probe safely, in order to detect for the first time signs of life on the planet. In addition to advanced cameras and a robotic arm, the probe will also operate a robotic helicopter, On another planet.