China has also released fantastic images of Mars as it nestles in orbit around Mars.

The Arabian Mars Probe is currently located a week in orbit around the red planet. A great first for the United Arab Emirates, which until recently had only experience of launching Earth observation satellites. La Marssonde is currently preparing for the real thing; study the Martian atmosphere. And of course, a beautiful snapshot cannot be missed.

Photo
The Arab team posted the image below and posted it on Twitter. It’s a cute image of the Red Planet that heralds the start of Hope Probe’s exciting mission.

“This first image of Mars, produced by Hope Probe, is a defining moment in our history,” the team tweeted. “This marks the UAE’s entry into the ranks of advanced countries involved in space exploration. We hope that this mission will lead to new discoveries on Mars that will benefit humanity.

The mission
The launch of Hope Probe took place on July 20, 2020 from the Japanese island of Tanegashima. The probe was launched into the air using a Japanese H-IIA missile. A long journey of about 493.5 million kilometers was ahead. After spending 204 days in interplanetary space, Hope Probe then arrived at its destination on February 9 and successfully settled into orbit around Mars. The Hope probe will examine the Martian atmosphere from this orbit. It consists of many layers, the details of which we still do not know. Hope Probe will use the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS for short) to study the interaction between the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere. It is hoped that this will provide a better understanding of how atmospheric gases escape from this atmosphere. Knowledge can also help us understand how Mars transformed from a hot, humid planet with a thick atmosphere to a cold, dry planet with a thin atmosphere. In addition, the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI for short) will be used to take very sharp photos of the Martian atmosphere and thus get a better picture of the water, ice and dust found in that atmosphere. ..

The Arabs are not the only ones posting images of their exciting mission to Mars. Also the Chinese, who only a few days after the arrival of the Arabs on the red planet with their Mars probe, come with pictures. They even go further. Because a short video shows how Tianwen-1 successfully nestled in orbit around Mars. The probe descended just 400 kilometers above the Martian surface.

The countries
However, the plan is to get even closer to Mars. After all, the Chinese also want a Mars lander and rover to land on the surface. It is not yet known when this will happen, but it is expected to happen in the spring.

All in all, the images of Arabs and Chinese give us a wonderful glimpse into their marching missions which are about to begin now. The hope is that the two missions will reveal a lot about Mars. Because while the Arabs throw themselves into the Martian atmosphere, the Chinese will hunt for the (old) life. In addition, it will also be in a few days the American rover Perseverance arrive on the red planet, which will search the rocks for traces of microbes that could have roamed the red planet in a gray past. So it promises to be an exciting time when perhaps some of the most pressing questions will be answered: is there or was there life on Mars?