UAE Hope Probe to send first Mars images in a week

Dubai - The Emirates Mars Mission team is now preparing Hope for its science mission.

The UAE’s Hope Probe is ‘healthy’ and settling well in its new home in the Martian orbit. And one week from now, it is expected to send its first images of Mars, officials said today.

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Hope was successfully captured by the Martian gravity on Tuesday, officially making the UAE the first Arab nation in the Red Planet. It aced its Mars Orbit Insertion, a high-risk autonomous manoeuvre that entailed great precision.

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“Everything is working fine and we managed to go through the critical operations, quite harsh operations yesterday, quite successfully,” Mars mission director Omran Sharaf explained at a Press briefing on Wednesday.

“We officially transited from the Mars orbit Insertion Phase into the orbit transfer phase, which basically means for the next two months we will be preparing the spacecraft and the scientific instruments for going into our science orbit.”

During this phase, the team will have to calibrate Hope’s science instruments and make sure that the data is accurate, he added. “This is done so that by the time our Science mission starts, we are able to provide accurate details to the scientific community. We hope to get the first image in one week from now.”

nandini@khaleejtimes.com

• Hope Mission To Mars
• Dubai