UAE Mars Mission: Hope probe pulls off astounding manoeuvre to enter orbit around Mars
The probe will now capture information about the Martian climate, which will be sent back to Earth
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Your support makes all the difference.The United Arab Emirates' Hope probe mission, which will launch a satellite around Mars in order to study its climate, has successfully completed a challenging half-hour manoeuvre which risked sending the probe flying into space.
The probe launched from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center for a seven-month voyage, facing off bad weather which caused the mission to be delayed twice in June 2020.
Hope was forced to rely on its autonomous controls in order to reach Mars, as the 190 million kilometre gap in distance between the Earth and Mars meant that it would take 11 minutes for signals from Earth to reach the craft and as such could not be controlled remotely.
The Hope probe will now study how energy moves through the Martian atmosphere. It will track the movement of hydrogen and oxygen atoms at the top of the atmosphere, as well as lofted dust which has a significant effect on the planet's temperature.
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