51 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their lunar module Eagle on the Sea of Tranquility. In 1969, the United States and the Soviet Union were the only spacefaring nations in the world. Yesterday (yesterday EDT; July 20 at the launch site in Japan) a country that didn’t even exist 51 years ago launched an unmanned spacecraft to Mars. Al Amal (Hope) is the United Arab Emirates’s first interplanetary mission, and the first of three Mars spacecraft scheduled for launch in the next few days. It is scheduled to arrive in Mars orbit in February of next year. 2021 marks the 50 year anniversary of the establishment of the UAE.
At the 2:10 mark of this video, you see the separation of the two side solid rocket boosters from the Japanese launch vehicle. Shortly thereafter, the spacecraft established two-way communication with the ground station. Hope is off to a good start on its 300 million mile (500 million kilometer) journey to Mars.
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The UAE scientists wanted to do some serious science, not simply mark a “first” for the Arab world. Hope will spend at least an entire Martian year (687 days) in orbit, studying the atmosphere and how the climate changes with the seasons. All of this is of course important for any future human missions to Mars. The UAE has set the goal of a human occupied settlement on Mars by 2117.
You can read all about the Hope mission here.
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