The UAE (United Arab Emirates) Spacecraft Hope Launched from earth has entered the orbit around the Mars, currently moving at over 120,000km/h (75,000mph).
The spacecraft called Amal, Arabic for Hope has reached the end of its 300 million mile, seven month old journey and begun circling the planet mars,
Omran Sharaf, The Project Manager of the United Arab Emirates first mission to Mars:
“We’re entering a very critical phase, It’s a phase that basically defines whether we reach Mars, or not; and whether we’ll be able to conduct our science, or not.
“If we go too slow, we crash on Mars; if we go too fast, we skip Mars,”
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in Dubai were the mission is controlled, will have the data streaming back on the performance of Hope’s thrusters, and there is nothing that anyone can do if something goes wrong.
The spacecraft carries 800 kilos of fuel. And about half this mass will be consumed by the six thrusters involved in the 27 minute long manoeuvre.
After the engines are completely shut down, Hope will disappear behind Mars and its trajectory bends into planned initial orbit.
The main motto of the spacecraft is to predict the weather or climate for Mars, more specifically, it is going to study how energy moves through the atmosphere from bottom to top and through all the seasons of the year.
Hope will track features such as lofted dust which hugely influences the temperature of the atmosphere on mars, it will also look in to the behaviour of neutral atoms of hydrogen and oxygen at the top of the atmosphere.
