UAE Hope Probe's first image of Mars labelled, explained

The north pole of Mars is in the upper left of the image. In the centre, just emerging into the early morning sunlight, is Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the Solar System.

The three large shield volcanoes in a line are Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arisia Mons. If one looked east, one could see the can see the canyon system, Valles Marineris and is partly covered by clouds.

Ice clouds are also present over the southern highlands (lower right) as well as surrounding the volcano Alba Mons (upper left).

Clouds can also be seen above the limb (top of image and middle right, when looking between the planet and space).

These clouds, seen in different geographic regions and at different times of day, provide a preview of EMM’s contributions to our understanding of the Martian atmosphere.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, shared the images simultaneously on Sunday, February 14.

The image was relayed back less than a week after the spacecraft entered the Martian orbit last week.

The space odyssey

Having travelled over 493 million km over the past seven months, people in the UAE, the Arab region and around the world have eagerly awaited to see the first image taken by the Hope Probe.

These first images will be followed by many similar such views of Mars.

The spacecraft was put in a wide orbit on February 9 in a bid to study the planet's weather and a climate system and will also see the planet's full disk.

It's a type of view that's usual from Earth-based telescopes but less so from satellites actually positioned at Mars.

Framing Mars

The picture was captured by Hope's EXI instrument from an altitude of 24,700km above the Martian surface at 20:36 GMT on Wednesday, a day after arriving at the Red Planet.

The EXI digital exploration camera which has captured the image, is one of Emirates Mars Mission's (EMM) three scientific instruments. It is a multi-wavelength radiation tolerant camera that can take 12-megapixel images and takes the image from an altitude of around 25,000 km above the Martian surface.

Customisation

The flexible readout modes of EXI allow customisation of resolution, regions of interest and frame rate to meet the needs of the user. The lens system is a double lens assembly with a separate ultra-violet (UV) and visual instruction system (VIS) optical paths. The type of lens used is a double Gauss variant, a compound type lens used to provide high resolution imaging of Mars. The low focal ratio makes it possible to use very short exposure times to capture stable images during periapsis, while fitting both lens systems into a compact package.

The colour is created from a composite of red, green, and blue EXI images.

Function of EXI

EXI provides more precise instrumental characterization, i.e., lower radiometric uncertainty of scientific imaging (needed for high accuracy retrievals of cloud optical depth). For the UV lens system, short-wavelength UV-C (245 – 275 nm) and long-wavelength UV-A (305 – 335 nm) will be covered. As for the VIS lens system, it will cover the bands; Red (625 – 645 nm), Green (506 - 586 nm) and Blue (405 – 469 nm).

The picture is the first of more than 1,000 GB of new Mars data that the Probe will send back to earth and that will be shared for free with more than 200 academic and scientific institutions around the world.

For the first time, it will study the link between weather change and atmospheric loss, a process that may have caused the Red Planet’s surface corrosion and the loss of its upper atmosphere.

The mission will provide deeper insights on the climatic dynamics of the Red Planet by observing the weather phenomena in Mars such as the massive dust storms that have been known to engulf the Red Planet, as compared to the short and localized dust storms on earth. It will focus on better comprehending the correlation between weather changes in Mars’ lower atmosphere, with the loss of hydrogen and oxygen from the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Hope's scientific instruments

The Hope Probe also carries the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS), which studies the lower atmosphere of the Red Planet in the infrared band, measures the global distribution of dust, ice clouds, water vapour and temperature profiles and provides the link between the lower to the upper atmosphere in conjunction with EMUS and EXI observations.

The third instrument onboard that will study Mars is the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS). It detects ultraviolet wavelength and determines the abundance and variability of carbon monoxide and oxygen in the thermosphere on sub-seasonal timescales. It also calculates the three-dimensional structure and variability of oxygen and hydrogen in the exosphere and measures the relative changes in the thermosphere.

What next?

The probe’s entry to Mars’ orbit marks the end of four of the six stages of its space journey that started on July 20, 2020: Launch, Early Operations, Cruise and The Mars Orbit Insertion. The probe is currently entering the ‘transition to science’ phase, before it commences the ‘science’ phase to study the Martian atmosphere.

The last phase of the probe’s journey is set to begin in April 2020. The probe will officially enter the Science phase to complete the first-ever planet-wide, 24x7 picture of Mars’ atmospheric dynamics and weather daily, throughout all seasons for one full Martian year (687 earth days) until April 2023. The probe, however, can be used for another two years for additional data collection.

Visionary Leaders turn an idea to reality

The journey of Hope Probe actually began as an idea seven years ago, through an exceptional ministerial retreat called by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in late 2013. His Highness led an intellectual storm with the members of the Council in which he presented a number of ideas in preparation for celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the union in 2021.

The retreat at that time adopted the idea of sending a mission to explore Mars, as a bold project. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre was assigned by the UAE government to manage, develop, and execute all phases of the program, while the UAE Space Agency was charged with the general supervision of the mission.

Overcoming challenges

Since its inception in 2014, the EMM has successfully overcome a number of challenges, most notably the conditions imposed by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the circumstances presented, the team was able to move the probe from Dubai to Japan and successfully launched it from the Tanegashima Island there.

Hope probe was developed in six years while similar Mars missions have taken between 10 to 12 years. The project was also completed at half the standard cost of other scientific projects to Mars, as it cost Dh735 million and is considered among the lowest in the world compared to similar missions.