Emirati engineers designed a new space probe named Al Amal or "Hope" in English. The probe is due to launch this year and serves as a message to young Arabs everywhere that "hope transcends the distance between the earth and the skies," from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
The space probe has been shipped to the JAXA-run Tanegashima Space Center- where it is scheduled to launch on July- on April 24 ahead of its schedule to ensure a timely launch due to the ongoing travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The turning point for the Arab and Islamic world in the space sector
The Hope spacecraft is expected to take off at the beginning of the three-week-long launch window from July 14 to August 3. It is the singular major component of UAE's Mars Mission, which will study the atmosphere, weather, daily and seasonal weather cycles, and the variations of climate on different regions of Mars.
The collected data from Hope will help answer important questions about the atmosphere of Mars. Questions such as why gaseous hydrogen and oxygen are being lost to space and how the drastic climate of the red planet changes.
Sheikh Mohammed said in an interview on Saturday, that the Hope probe represents a turning point for the Arab and Islamic world in the space sector. The new Mars mission not only represents a scientific goal for the Arabs but also a message that hope rise above between the earth and the skies.
Emirate engineers are working according to schedule to complete their top science projects despite tough global travel conditions. The Hope probe was developed was initially planned to finish building within 10 years, but they managed to do it in less than 6 years and at half the cost.
The Minister of State for Advanced Sciences, Sarah Al-Amir, was at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre to see the probe off. She thanked the specialized team that accompanied the probe from UAE to Japan, and other parties and teams involved for the launch in her twitter post on Saturday.
Built by 150 Emirati engineers and 200 partnering U.S. engineers and scientists, the Hope spacecraft was constructed at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Other collaborators in the development of the spacecraft also include academic partners from the University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University.
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Launching the Hope probe
The Hope spacecraft underwent environmental testing in the United States which began in June 2019 and concluded in December, after its completion at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics. From there, it was transported to the facilities of MBRSC in Dubai in UAE for a final set of tests before it is shipped to its launching site in Japan.
Hope probe was packaged and shipped from Dubai to the Al Maktoum International Airport on April 20, and then to the Nagoya International Airport in Japan before it was finally transported to the Tanegashima Space Center.
Scientists will now conduct the final checkouts to the probe before its integration onto the two-stage medium-lift H-IIA launch vehicle, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) which has successfully conducted 40 launches to date.
If the launch of the Hope probe cannot be attempted on the launch window from July 14 to August 3, it will take another 2 years for another launch opportunity to arise.
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