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Video: UAE Mars mission success result of 5.5 million hours of work

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Dubai - The Hope Probe has been making headlines for a multitude of reasons.

Published: Wed 10 Feb 2021, 11:57 AM

Updated: Wed 10 Feb 2021, 11:58 AM

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  • Web report

The UAE's mission to Mars is one of three missions to the Red Planet this month. But it is the Hope Probe that has been making headlines around the world for a multitude of reasons — not least of which is that it is the first Arab interplanetary mission to achieve the historic feat.

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The mission included 200 Emirati engineers, of which 34 per cent were women — and its success is the result of 5.5 million man hours.

The mission was first announced in 2014, when UAE President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, unveiled the country's space agency and announced plans to launch a scientific voyage of discovery to the Red Planet by 2021.

In less than seven years, the probe made history in July 2020, when it launched successfully from Japan's Tanegashima Island, with the first Arabic countdown.

The next crucial phase was the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI). Only 50 per cent of spacecrafts that have tried to enter the Martian orbit have succeeded. The UAE was prepared for every eventuality, according to the mission team.

In the run-up to February 9, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, also took to Twitter to address the uncertainty with measured confidence.

“Even if the Hope Probe couldn’t enter the orbit, I say that we entered the history, because this will be the farthest point in the universe Arabs have ever reached,” he'd said.

With the whole world watching with bated breath on February 9, the UAE announced the mission was a success.

DON'T MISS: UAE celebrates Hope Probe success with cheers, applause

The country has taken great pride in the ambition and dedication of its youth — and it is already looking to the next phase of the mission to ensure the probe successfully transitions into the Science orbit, where it will capture more than 1TB of new data from now until April 2023.



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