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Hope Probe marks first anniversary

The Probe’s arrival at Mars orbit marked a historic achievement for the Emirates and the Arab world and has resulted in unique and challenging observations of the Red Planet, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), the first Arab interplanetary mission, today celebrates the first anniversary of its successful entry into Mars’ orbit and the gathering of a unique trove of Mars observations by the Hope Probe. One year on, the autonomous spacecraft has achieved historic milestones as part of its mandate to expand our understanding of the Martian planet.

The Hope Probe successfully reached Mars’ orbit at 19:42 on 9 February, 2021, completing one of the most complex and intricate stages of its mission, after a 493 million kilometre, 7-month journey through space.

“Tuesday 9 February 2021 has become an historic occasion for the UAE, marking a unique achievement for our young nation,” said Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency. “The Hope Probe is an inspiring success story for the youth of the UAE and the Arab world in general and comes as the culmination of a multinational effort to drive the development of our space sector, contribute to our growing space sector and bring new insights into our human understanding of our nearest planetary neighbour – Mars.”

(wam)

Salem Butti Salem Al Qubaisi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, said the day marks a defining moment in the history of the national space sector. “The achievements open up broad prospects for the development and prosperity of the national space sector aimed at boosting its contribution to the UAE’s GDP – as it is one of the most prominent sectors of the future economy based on innovation and knowledge.”

Eng. Omran Sharaf, Director of the Emirates Mars Mission (Hope Probe), said the Probe has registered numerous scientific achievements by observing previously-unknown phenomena. It will continue its scientific mission, which aims to provide the first comprehensive picture of the Red Planet’s climate and atmosphere, benefiting from its unique 25-degree elliptical orbit, which enables it to collect data and high-resolution images of the planet’s atmosphere every 225 hours, or 9.5 days.

170 rotations around Mars

Since its arrival, Hope Probe has circled the Red Planet over 170 times, at a rate of one cycle every 55 hours. So far, the data captured by Hope Probe has been made available in two tranches, with a commitment to continue publishing and making new batches available every three months.

The first two batches of scientific data were published in October and January respectively. The first batch, included scientific data gathered during 9 February to 22 May and totaled 110 GB. Almost 2 terabytes (TB) of data has been downloaded from the Emirates Mars Mission Science Data Centre, including 1.5TB in the form of data from the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) camera .

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Unprecedented scientific observations

The Hope Probe has made a number of key new observations of Martian atmospheric phenomena, including the elusive discrete aurora on Mars’ nightside, remarkable concentrations of oxygen and carbon monoxide and never-before seen images of Martian dust storms as they billow across the planetary surface.

Cloudy day on Mars:The Probe captured an image on 16 March, 2021, of particular interest to the scientific community. At the time, the spacecraft was orbiting approximately 1,366km above Mars. The image scale at center is about 148 m/pixel (note 50 km scale bar) and it covered the heavily cratered region known as “Arabia Terra” (image center is at 0.8 N latitude, 43.8 E longitude, and North is toward the top).

The western (left) half of this scene shows a dramatic occurrence of Martian water-ice clouds. Similar to cirrus clouds on Earth, these clouds form when water vapour in the Martian atmosphere freezes into tiny ice particles. The complex structure of these clouds is largely due to interactions between winds and the surface.

Foggy craters: On 15 March, 2021, the EXI camera captured multispectral images of this oblique view of the heavily cratered region known as Arabia Terra.

Images of the fully illuminated hemisphere: On 15 September 2021 the EXI camera system onboard the EMM mission obtained a set of multispectral images of the fully illuminated hemisphere of Mars.

Huge dust storms: On 5 January, 2022, the EXI camera system onboard the EMM mission obtained the half-illuminated view of Mars the sun was just setting near the center of the disk.

The Hope Probe is scheduled to continue its scientific mission to explore Mars until the middle of 2023, with the possibility of extending it for an additional Martian year (two Earth years).

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NASA’s perseverance rover collects first Mars rock samples

The rover, which collected the material from the inside of a rock, beamed back the confirmation to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)…reports Asian Lite News.

Decades after exploring the barren surface of Mars from millions of kilometres away, humans will soon get their hands on the Martian regolith (surface material) thanks to an SUV sized astrobiologist trundling on the Red Planet. The rover — Nasa’s Perseverance — has now successfully collected, processed and sealed the first samples from the Martian surface to be brought to Earth for deeper analysis.

The rover, which collected the material from the inside of a rock, beamed back the confirmation to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The core is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, making it available for retrieval in the future.

Both Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) are planning a series of missions to bring back these samples to Earth that will be a watershed moment in interplanetary exploration. “These samples would be the first set of scientifically identified and selected materials returned to our planet from another,” Nasa said in a statement.

The Perseverance rover has been trundling on the surface of Mars to look for signs of ancient microbial life in the Jazero crater, believed to be the site of an ancient lake. The sample gathering began on September 1, when the rotary percussive drill at the end of Perseverance’s robotic arm cored into a flat, briefcase-size Mars rock nicknamed “Rochette.”

According to Nasa, after successfully drilling into the rock the arm manoeuvred the corer, bit, and sample tube so the rover’s Mastcam-Z camera instrument could image the contents of the still-unsealed tube and transmit the results back to Earth. Once engineers confirmed successful coring commands were sent for processing and the rover transferred sample tube serial number 266 and its Martian cargo into the rover’s interior before hermetically sealing the container.

NASA has a history of setting ambitious goals and then accomplishing them, reflecting our nation’s commitment to discovery and innovation. This is a momentous achievement and I can’t wait to see the incredible discoveries produced by Perseverance and our team,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

The rover is currently exploring the rocky outcrops and boulders of “Artuby,” a ridgeline of more than a half-mile (900 meters) bordering two geologic units believed to contain Jezero Crater’s deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock.

When the Martian regolith returns to Earth, it will be the first unique material to arrive home from an alien planet. It’s, however, not the first sample from an alien source to reach Earth. Nasa has successfully brought regolith and surface material from the Moon in the past and is now awaiting the first samples from an asteroid.

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Hope Probe releases global images of Mars’ aurora

@HopeMarsMission

The images have revolutionary implications for our understanding of the interactions between solar radiation, Mars’ magnetic fields and the planetary atmosphere….reports Asian Lite News

The Emirates Mars Mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, has released the first global images of Mars in the far-ultraviolet, providing new insights into the discrete aurora phenomenon in Mars’ nightside atmosphere.

The images have revolutionary implications for our understanding of the interactions between solar radiation, Mars’ magnetic fields and the planetary atmosphere.

“These unique global snapshots of the discrete aurora of Mars are the first time such detailed and clear observations have been made globally, as well as across previously unobservable wavelengths. The implications for our understanding of Mars’ atmospheric and magnetospheric science are tremendous and provide new support to the theory that solar storms are not necessary to drive Mars’ aurora,’ commented Emirates Mars Mission Science Lead, Hessa Al Matroushi.

The images, taken by the Hope Probe’s EMUS (Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer) instrument, show a ghostly glow known as the discrete aurora. Its intricate patterns trace out the regions where Mars’ enigmatic crustal magnetic fields act like a funnel to guide fast electrons from space down into the atmosphere, causing it to shimmer in a manner similar to Earth’s aurora.

This influence of localised magnetic fields is a unique feature of the Red Planet as Mars, unlike Earth, does not have a global magnetic field generated by the planet’s core. The most sensitive ultraviolet instrument yet to orbit Mars, EMUS is able to image these dynamic auroral events globally at high resolution and across a wide range of wavelengths, providing an unprecedented window upon the interaction of the atmosphere with solar particles.

@HopeMarsMission

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While previous studies had theorised the discrete aurora is tied to Mars’ magnetic fields and existing observations had been consistent with that theory, prior images of this phenomenon at this quality had only been available as artist’s impressions.

“We have totally blown out ten years of study of Mars’ auroras with ten minutes of observations,” said EMM Deputy Science Lead Justin Deighan.

“The data we are capturing confirms the tremendous potential we now have of exploring Mars’ aurora and the interactions between Mars’ magnetic fields, atmosphere and solar particles with a coverage and sensitivity we could only previously dream of. These exciting observations go above and beyond the original science goals of the Emirates Mars Mission.”

One of three instruments on board the Mars Hope Probe, EMUS’ principal science goal is the measurement of oxygen and carbon monoxide in Mars’ thermosphere and the variability of hydrogen and oxygen in the exosphere. Members of the science team who had previously worked on the MAVEN Mission had recognised the potential for the more sensitive EMUS instrument to capture new aspects of Mars’ auroral phenomena, but the results of early observations have exceeded their wildest expectations.

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