Arab world's first space mission to Mars blasts off from Japan

TOKYO: The first Arab space mission in the Arab world launched on Monday from Japan, with the "Hope" successfully separating from the rocket about an hour after takeoff.

A live broadcast of the launch showed the rocket carrying the unmanned probe, known as "Al-Amal" in Arabic, taking off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 6:58 am local time (2158 GMT).


Almost exactly an hour later, the feed showed people clapping in the Japanese control room when the probe was successfully disconnected.

In Dubai, the launch was met with enthusiastic excitement, and UAE mission deputy project manager on Mars Sarah Al-Amiri said it was "an indescribable feeling" to see the probe explode.

"This is the future of the UAE," Amiri, who is also minister of state for advanced science, told Dubai TV from the launch site.

The Emirati project is one of three races to Mars, including Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States, taking advantage of a period when Earth and Mars are closer.

In October, Mars will be a relatively short 38.6 million miles (62.07 million km) from Earth, according to NASA.

"Hope" is expected to reach Mars orbit in February 2021, marking the 50th anniversary of the UAE's unification, a seven-emirate alliance.

Martian Year of Orbit

Unlike the other two Mars companies scheduled for this year, it will not land on the Red Planet but will orbit it for an entire Martian year, or 687 days.

While the goal of the Mars mission is to provide a comprehensive picture of climate dynamics in the Red Planet's atmosphere, the probe is a basis for a much larger goal: to build a human settlement on Mars in the next 100 years.

The United Arab Emirates also wants the project to serve as a source of inspiration for Arab youth, in a region that is often affected by sectarian conflict and economic crisis.

On Twitter, the UAE government stated that the investigation launched a "message of pride, hope, and peace for the Arab region, in which we renew the golden age of Arab and Islamic discoveries."

Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, lit up hours before takeoff with a symbolic 10-second countdown in anticipation of the launch, which was delayed twice by bad weather.

'Holistic view'

Several dozen probes, most of them American, have been targeting the Red Planet since the 1960s. Many never got that far or were unable to land.

The drive to explore Mars marked until confirmation, less than 10 years ago, that water once flowed on its surface.

Omran Sharaf, project manager for the mission, said the "Hope" research will offer a special perspective on the elusive planet.

"The unique thing about this mission is that, for the first time, the scientific community around the world will have a holistic view of the Martian atmosphere at different times of the day at different seasons," Sharaf said in a pre-launch briefing.

"We have a strategy to contribute to the global effort in the development of technologies and scientific work that will help one day if humanity decides to put a human on Mars."

The UAE already has nine satellites in orbit in operation, and they have plans to launch another eight in the coming years. And in September, he sent the first Emirati into space on a mission to the International Space Station.

But the UAE's ambitions go far beyond that, aiming to build a human settlement on Mars by 2117.