SUMMARY:
- The Mars mission from the UAE is to be known as Al-Amal.
- Al-Amal is the Arabic word 'hope'
- On July 15, the Mars Sonde will be launched at a Japanese spot.
Mars' first Arab Space Mission is being organized with probes to study the atmosphere of the Red Planet and is aimed at inspiring youth in the region.
The unmanned Al-Amal son, 'Hope' in Arabic, will blast off on the 15th of July from the Japanese space center, with the final stages now being prepared.
The project is the next huge step for the United Arab Emirates, which has been put onto the world map by huge skyscrapers and mega-projects.
Last year, the UAE sent its first astronaut to space and plans to build a "Science City" to replicate the conditions on Mars, where they hope to establish a humane settlement by 2117.
In addition to the ambitious scientific targets, Omran Sharaf, project manager, said that the mission was designed to reflect the golden age of cultural and scientific achievement in the region.
"The US wanted to send Arab youth a strong message, reminding them of the past, that we used to be knowledge generators," he said to AFP.
The Arab World, where so many countries are now wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises, said: "The people with different backgrounds and religions have coexisted and shared the same identity.
"Set aside your discrepancies, focus on the construction of this region, you have a rich history and you can do much more."
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The Deputy Project Manager of the mission, Sarah al-Amiri, said that the long-term scientific influence of the projects is imperative.
"This is not a project that lasts for a short time, but one which has taken on important scientific discoveries over the years – whether by scientists in the UAE or worldwide," she said to AFP.
She said that with three scientific instruments, the test would provide a detailed picture of the weather dynamics in Mars' atmosphere.
The first is an infrarot spectrometer that tests the lower atmosphere of the earth.
The third is an ultraviolet spectromètre for measuring oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 kilometers from the earth. This high-resolution imaging provides details on ozone.
These three tools will enable researchers "to watch the Red Planet at all times of the day and to observe all Mars at all times," says Amiri.
"The causes of the loss of atmosphere and if the weather system on Mars actually has a bearing in hydrogen and oxygen loss, is something we want to understand better and that's important for the global dynamics," she said referring to the two constituents that constitute water.
Sharaf said that the sonde's fueling will start next week.
The company is scheduled to launch the Tanegashima space center in Japan on July 15th and return in February2021 to Earth, depending on the weather conditions.
"We 'd have to await another fenced two years if we miss this launch opportunity, which is between mid-July and early August," Sharaf said.
Nevertheless, there is strong optimism that the mission will be executed as scheduled and that the pandemic will not fail.
The European State on Tuesday wished the United Arab Emirates success on the mission with a new sign of warming ties between Israel and the Gulf of Arab nations.
"We hope that this step will make a difference in deeper partnership across countries in the region," Twitter writes in Arabic his Foreign Ministry's "Israel in the Gulf."
