The Hope spacecraft orbiter is a planned 2020 unmanned mission to Mars by the United Arab Emirates to study the Martian atmosphere and climate. The robotic space probe is expected to be launched in the summer of 2020 and to take seven to nine months to arrive at Mars. In designing the orbiter, the Emirates Mars Mission deputy project manager and science lead, Sarah Amiri, is expected to collaborate with the University of Colorado, the University of California, Berkeley and the Arizona State University.
The Emirates Mars Mission orbiter is set to arrive at Mars in 2021 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE. The rocket must blast off from Earth during a brief “launch window” in July 2020. This is because the Earth and Mars orbit the Sun at different rates, and are aligned at their closest point only once every two years. If any part of the mission is not ready in time or fails at the last minute, there may be no second chance. The Probe will be housed in the nose cone of a rocket similar to those used to launch satellites and astronauts visiting the International Space Station.
When the countdown reaches zero, the rocket will blast off. In order to break free of Earth’s gravity, the probe will need to accelerate to an escape velocity of 39,000 km/h. After around one minute, the first set of rocket boosters will detach and fall away, followed by three more rocket stages which will fire up and fall away in turn until the launcher releases the spacecraft onto its journey across the Solar System to Mars. At this time the probe will be tumbling rapidly, and will need to manoeuvre to stabilise itself. This will be a tense moment at Mission Control in the UAE as the team waits for the first signals to come in, because it will be impossible to communicate with the probe until it stops spinning. Next, it will unfold its three solar panels and orient itself towards the sun to charge the batteries that will power its computers, transmitters and equipment. Once it reaches full speed, the probe will need no more energy to propel itself through the vacuum of space: with nothing to slow it down, it will coast at the same speed all the way. During its seven‐month journey, the probe may need to manoeuvre around from time to time to point its solar panels at the sun to charge its batteries, and to point its antenna back at Earth to communicate with Mission Control.
As it travels, the probe will need to know where it is in space, and exactly where to point its narrow‐beam antenna in order to communicate with Earth. It will use star trackers to navigate using the patterns of constellations, in much the same way as Bedouin travellers and seafarers in ancient times would use the stars to find their way. 2 The probe will approach Mars in early 2021. This will be another critical moment: the probe must use its thrusters as brakes to slow down and enter Mars orbit. By this time, the probe will be so far away that its radio signals will take 13‐20 minutes to reach Earth. This makes it impossible to control the spacecraft in real time, and so its software has been designed to be as autonomous as possible and make its own decisions to correct its course without human intervention in real time. The engines must be fired for 30 minutes at this time, otherwise the probe would speed on past Mars and be lost. This will be another tense moment at Mission Control as the team waits for the probe to signal that it has successfully been captured into orbit around the Red Planet. The probe will first enter a wide oval‐shaped orbit, then later move into a closer scientific orbit. Its speed relative to the planet will vary between 3,600‐14,400 km/h, travelling fastest when its elliptical orbit brings it closest to the planet. It will turn on its sensors and begin collecting data to be transmitted back to Earth