UAE carries Arab world’s interplanetary hopes on first Mars mission
A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed away on Monday on a seven-month journey to Mars, kicking off the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed away on Monday on a seven-month journey to Mars, kicking off the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
The lift-off of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, from Japan marked the start of a rush to fly to Earth’s neighbour that includes attempts by China and the US. The UAE said Amal was functioning after launch as it headed toward Mars.
Mission chief Omran Sharaf told journalists in Dubai about an hour and a half after the lift-off that the probe was now sending signals. Dr Sharaf said his team would examine the data, but everything appeared good for now. People cheered and clapped, with one woman with offering a celebratory cry commonly heard at weddings.
Hope is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since the country’s formation.
It blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center on a small southern Japanese island aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA rocket, on time at 6.58am into the blue sky. Mitsubishi said the probe has been successfully separated from the rocket and was now on its solo journey. The launch had been delayed for five days because of stormy weather.
At Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai, Emirati men in their traditional white kandora robes and women in their black abayas watched transfixed as the rocket lifted off. As its stages separated, a cheer went out from a group of Emirati men seated on the floor. They began clapping, one using his face mask due to the coronavirus pandemic to wipe away a tear.
“It was great to see everything going according to schedule today. It looks like things are all on track. It’s a huge step in terms of space exploration to have a nation like the UAE taking that giant leap to send a spacecraft to Mars,” Astronomer Fred Watson said. “Being on route to a planet like Mars is an exceptional achievement.”
A newcomer in space development, the UAE has successfully put three Earth observation satellites into orbit. Two were developed by South Korea and launched by Russia, and a third — its own — was launched by Japan.
A successful Hope mission to Mars would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space, coming less than a year after the launch of the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. He spent over a week at the International Space Station. The UAE’s goal is to build a human colony on Mars by 2117.
“It sends a very strong message to the Arab youth that if the UAE is able to reach Mars in less than 50 years, they could do much more,” Mr Sharaf, project director of Emirates Mars Mission, said on Sunday as his colleagues prepared for the launch.
“So the region has been going through tough times in the past decades, if not centuries.
“Now we have the case of the UAE, a country that’s moving forward with its plans, looking at the future and the future of region also.”
AP
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