Starship Asterisk*

An artist’s impression of the United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft
in orbit around Mars, where it will arrive in February 2021 after
launching in July from Japan. Credit: MBRSC

---

The Emirates Mars Mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, is expected to lift off in July (exact launch date depends on weather conditions) on an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan, and arrive at Mars in February 2021, where it will spend two years orbiting the red planet gathering crucial science data.

The mission is being carried out by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in collaboration with a number of research institutions, including Arizona State University.

The orbiter, named "Hope" ("Al Amal" in Arabic), carries three science instruments, including the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS), an interferometric thermal infrared spectrometer ... EMIRS will provide a unique view of the lower and middle atmosphere of the planet, measuring the distribution of dust particles and ice clouds while tracking the movement of water vapor and heat through the atmosphere. ...

In addition to EMIRS, the orbiter includes a multiband camera called the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) and a far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph called the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS). The EXI camera is capable of taking high-resolution images and will measure properties of water, ice, dust, aerosols and ozone in Mars’ atmosphere. The EMUS spectrometer will measure global characteristics and variability in the thermosphere and hydrogen and oxygen coronae. ...

The Hope Probe will circle Mars on a 55-day orbit, analyzing its atmosphere. (Photo courtesy of the United Arab Emirates Hope Mars Mission)

---

At 2:58 p.m. PDT today (Sunday, July 19), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) successfully launched an interplanetary probe — the first by any country in the Arab world — thanks, in part, to science collaboration, training and instrument components provided by the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL).

The Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe is scheduled to arrive at Mars in February 2021 and spend two years orbiting the “red planet,” providing an unprecedented global view of the Martian atmosphere. It will also give scientists greater insight into how our Earth may have evolved and enable greatly improved weather forecasting to help support future human missions to Mars.

The mission is led by Emirati engineers and scientists, with significant sharing of expertise and technical knowledge by colleagues at UC Berkeley and three other U.S. institutions — the University of Colorado at Boulder, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University — jump-starting an interplanetary space program in a nation that, until now, had produced only Earth observation satellites. The Hope Probe was launched from a site on Tanegashima, an island in Japan, aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket.

An hour and a half after launch, the solar panels deployed and the probe was officially on its way to Mars. ...