UAE| Hope Probe enters final lap to Mars
The Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, on Saturday announced it will enter Mars’ orbit at 7.57 pm GST on February 9, 2021.
The Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) maneuver involves reversing the spacecraft and firing the Hope Probe’s six Delta-V thrusters in a 27-minute deceleration ‘burn’ to rapidly slow the speed of the spacecraft, and will see the Operations Team confirming whether the Probe has achieved a stable capture orbit around Mars.
Hope has a planned 20,000 – 43,000 km elliptical science orbit, with an inclination to Mars of 25 degrees. In this orbit, the probe completes one orbit of the planet every 55 hours and will capture a full planetary sample every nine days.
Mars Hope is a fully autonomous spacecraft, carrying three instruments to measure Mars’ atmosphere. Weighing some 1,350 kg, and approximately the size of a small SUV, the spacecraft was designed and developed by MBRSC engineers working with academic partners, including LASP at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Arizona State University and the University of California, Berkeley.