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Three spacecraft launched last summer will all arrive at Mars soon. The first is the United Arab Emirates’ Hope mission, which will begin firing its rocket engine to go into Mars orbit at 10:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, February 9th. The next day, China’s Tianwen-1 probe should brake itself into orbit. In May, a lander will separate and attempt to land on the surface. Last but not least, America’s Perseverance rover will streak into the Martian atmosphere and, if all goes well, lower itself to the surface at 3:55 p.m. on Thursday, February 18th. You can read previous posts about the difficulties of landing on Mars and the very cool hitchhiker attached to the Perseverance rover’s underbelly here. Our understanding of the red planet will advance if all three missions are successful. Let’s hope for that!
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