<p><strong>Syllabus section: science and tech</strong><br />
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<p><strong>Why in News?</strong></p>
<p>The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars entered the orbit of the red planet on Tuesday, seven months after the Emirati-built ‘Hope Probe’ was launched from Tanegashima in Japan. With this, the UAE has become the fifth country after the US, Russia, China, the EU, and India, to reach the Martian orbit.<br />
<strong>About:</strong></p>
<p>• First announced in July 2014, the Emirates Mars Mission was developed and operated by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in collaboration with the University California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and the University of Colorado-Boulder in the United States.<br />
• In July 2020, it was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-II A rocket and its launch became the 45th for H-II A. Carrying three instruments, including a high-resolution camera and a spectrometer, the spacecraft is on an orbital mission to collect data on Martian climate dynamics and help scientists understand why Mars’s atmosphere is decaying into space.<br />
• Hope is the UAE’s fourth space mission and first interplanetary one.<br />
• Once it is successfully able to reach the planet, it will start orbiting the planet. Its overall mission life is one Martian year, which is about 687 days on Earth.<br />
What is the objective of the mission?<br />
• The primary objective of the mission is to study Martian weather dynamics. By correlating the lower atmosphere and upper atmosphere conditions, the probe will look into how weather changes the escape of hydrogen and oxygen into space.<br />
• By measuring how much hydrogen and oxygen is spilling into space, scientists will be able to look into why Mars lost so much of its early atmosphere and liquid water.<br />
• Al-Amal will be the first “true weather satellite” orbiting around the planet. But the UAE also wants the mission to inspire the country’s youth to take up careers in the sciences. <br />
• The government also hopes that the mission will boost the UAE’s science and technology sector.<br />
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<p><strong>How did the Hope Probe swing into orbit around Mars?</strong><br />
In order to be captured by Mars’ gravity, the spacecraft had to pull off an intricate braking manoeuvre known as the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) to slow down its speed considerably. It was approaching the planet at over 120,000km/h (relative to the Sun) and had to execute a 27-minute burn on its braking engines so that it could avoid the risk of missing its orbit or getting lost in deep space.</p>
<p><strong>Source: Indian Express</strong><br />
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