Key takeaways:

• March 9^th marks one month since the Hope Probe successfully entered into orbit around Mars.
• The Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) took its first science images on February 20^th, 2021, providing information on the composition of Mars’ upper atmosphere.
• The orbiter, named ‘Hope’ (Al Amal in Arabic), and two of the three science instruments on board, Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) and Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) were developed at LASP in partnership with MBRSC engineers.
• The mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, will spend one Martian Year (about two Earth years) orbiting around the red planet gathering crucial scientific data on its atmosphere.

False-color images from the EMUS instrument. Violet (102.6 nm) and blue (121.6 nm) show the reflection of sunlight from the extended cloud of hydrogen atoms surrounding the planet. Green (130.4 nm) shows the reflection of sunlight from oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere. Orange (135.6 nm) shows energetic electrons causing other oxygen atoms to glow, similar to a fluorescent lamp. Red (140-160 nm) shows a combination of emissions coming from carbon monoxide molecules. Credit: Emirates Mars Mission / EMUS

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, achieved another major milestone on February 20^th, 2021 with the return of the first science images from the Emirates Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), one of three science instruments on board the Hope probe. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre  (MBRSC) released these images to mark one month since the Probe successfully entered into orbit around Mars on February 9, 2021. 

“We are very excited indeed to be moving into our science orbit and starting the flow of planetary data we aim to gather over the coming Martian year,” said EMM Science Lead Hessa Al Matroushi.

EMUS collected its first series of images from an orbit altitude of 36,000 km. Each false-color image represents light collected at a different ultraviolet wavelength providing information on the composition of Mars’ upper atmosphere. EMUS is the first instrument to orbit Mars with the capability to measure the extreme ultraviolet wavelength region.

The EMUS spectrometer will measure global characteristics and variability of hydrogen and oxygen in the Mars upper atmosphere, right at the edge of space. The images show the measured signal from scattered sunlight off hydrogen and oxygen and emission from carbon monoxide in the Mars thermosphere, produced by the breakdown of water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.   

“Moments like these, when the first science data comes back from an instrument you’ve been working on for years, are always special. With the EMUS instrument we’ll be able to see how the upper atmosphere of Mars behaves in new ways, and at new wavelengths,” noted Dr. Mike Chaffin, EMUS Instrument Scientist  

“There is something unique and special about seeing the unseen universe with an ultraviolet instrument. Seen photons are sweet, but those unseen are sweeter,” said Dr. Justin Deighan, EMUS instrument scientist.

EMUS observations will improve our knowledge of how the upper and lower atmosphere of Mars are connected and how the atmosphere has been slowly lost to space over the history of the solar system.

 “I was impressed by how similar these first images compared to our model simulations.  But while we can predict many aspects of the Mars atmosphere, there are many unknowns that will be investigated throughout the mission, such as how the atmosphere has been lost to space over time,” said Dr. Greg Holsclaw, EMUS instrument scientist.

“We have already amassed some 60 gbits of data from Hope’s instruments in the mission so far,” said EMM Science Lead Hessa Al Matroushi. “Alongside early data streams from EMUS and its companion instrument EMIRS, we have also been able to take a range of highly detailed images of the planet using our imager, EXI, helped by the fact that when we’re at our closest point in our orbit, we’re on the sunny side of Mars.

EMUS is one of the three science instruments on board the Hope Probe, developed by MBRSC and LASP engineers and scientists. The EMUS spectrometer, with a wide array of ultraviolet wavelengths, will allow scientists to investigate the composition of oxygen and hydrogen still present in Mars’ upper atmosphere. 

Hope Probe Instrument highlight
Credit: MBRSC

Quelle: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

----

Update: 22.03.2021

.

UAE’s Hope probe prepares to transition into science orbit around Mars 

The spacecraft will fire its thrusters for eight to nine minutes on March 23

 

 

 

 

The UAE’s Hope probe will soon perform the first of two manoeuvres to get closer to its science orbit around Mars.

The spacecraft, which reached the Red Planet on February 9, will begin its mission of collecting atmospheric data once it enters the target orbit in April.

On March 23, at 1am Gulf Standard Time, the probe will fire its thrusters for eight to nine minutes to correct its positioning.

 

I think it’s fair to say there is huge excitement now in our science team and among Mars scientists around the world

Omran Sharaf, team leader

For the past few weeks, Hope has been travelling as close as 1,063 kilometres to Mars’ planetary surface and as far away as 42,461 km.

The goal is to reach an elliptical science orbit of 20,000 km to 43,000 km, where it can then spend two years gathering data.

 

“Our Mars orbit insertion was highly successful and precisely targeted and this has allowed us to plan a reduction in transition to science manoeuvres, and also to move to our science orbit ahead of schedule,” said Omran Sharaf, team leader of the mission.

“We will commence science data gathering earlier in April than we had originally planned, and I think it’s fair to say there is huge excitement now in our science team and among Mars scientists around the world.”

The strategic orbital placement will allow the spacecraft to complete one full circle around the planet every 55 hours and capture a full planetary data sample every nine days.

Hope’s three scientific instruments, the Emirates eXploration Imager (EXI) – a high-resolution camera and an ultraviolet and infrared spectrometer, will capture data.

Several high-resolution, infrared and ultraviolet photos were released earlier this month that measured gases present in the Martian atmosphere.

Hope will study why gases crucial to life are escaping from the atmosphere. It will also trace movement of energy through the atmosphere and the planet’s weather dynamics.

The last manoeuvre before it enters its science orbit is scheduled for April 6.

Quelle: National

----

Update: 27.05.2021

.

Next steps for Hope probe’s mission to Mars 

The orbiter has sent back thousands of scientific images as it measures atmospheric conditions on the Red Planet

The Emirates Mars Mission is moving into its next phase, gathering data that will help scientists to study the atmosphere and weather of the Red Planet.

The Hope probe, which started orbiting Mars on February 9, activated its instruments on April 10, and has already sent back thousands of images.

Now, the orbiter will spend two years collecting extensive data on gases, including hydrogen, oxygen and carbon monoxide, that surround the planet.

The data will help scientists to understand why and how Mars, which may have once supported ancient life, lost most of its atmosphere.

“Following a successful cruise to Mars, a near-perfect Mars orbit insertion manoeuvre and our transition from Hope’s capture orbit to our science orbit, we have completed our commissioning, calibration and testing phase,” said the project’s director, Omran Sharaf.

 

“I am delighted to be able to report that the Mars Hope probe is perfectly positioned to commence its two-year science mission.”

Recent images taken by the ultraviolet spectrometer, one of Hope’s instruments, shows sunlight reflecting off an extended cloud of atomic hydrogen gas that surrounds the planet.

Hope was able to capture the phenomenon because its unique 25-degree elliptical orbit allows it to study the planet at different times of the day.

The ultraviolet spectrometer has sent 14,000 spectral-spatial images of the atmosphere.

Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, said it was capable of collecting “a lot of new data”.

“The atomic hydrogen is formed by sunlight splitting water in the lower atmosphere, then diffuses to the upper atmosphere and escapes to space,” she said.

“The hydrogen is thickest close to Mars, circling the planet with a bright ring of light, and becomes thinner and dimmer further away.”

Quelle: National

+++

UAE's Emirates Hope Probe is ready to gather data from Mars

The Emirates Mars Mission will study the Martian atmosphere, the relationship between the upper layer and lower layer and scientists globally will have full access to a holistic view of the Martian atmosphere

 

The Emirates Mars Mission is ready to begin gathering data from the Martian planet after successfully completing practice exercises and ensuring instruments aboard are functioning properly.

The Hope Probe will study the Martian atmosphere, the relationship between the upper layer and lower layer and, for the first time, scientists globally will have full access to a holistic view of the Mars atmosphere at different times of the day, through different seasons.

“Following a successful cruise to Mars, a near-perfect Mars Orbit Insertion manoeuvre and our transition from Hope’s capture orbit to our science orbit, we have completed our commissioning, calibration and testing phase. I am delighted to be able to report that the Mars Hope probe is perfectly positioned to commence its two-years science mission,” said Omran Sharaf, Project Director of EMM.

The Hope Probe reached the Mars orbit in February after 204 days of travel to the red planet. In April, the probe’s three instruments – the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) and the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) – were activated and have now been tested.

A statement from the mission said the “instruments and spacecraft are performing beyond expectations.”

 

“Hope is following its planned 20,000 – 43,000 kilometre elliptical science orbit, with an inclination to Mars of 25 degrees. The probe will complete one orbit of the planet every 55 hours and will capture a full planetary data sample every nine days,” the statement said.

 

 

Announced in July 2014 by the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, the Emirates Mars Mission has been developed by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), in conjunction with its knowledge transfer partners and funded by the UAE Space Agency.

Quelle: Arabian Business

----

Update: 3.07.2021

.

Mars's glowing auroras snapped by Hope spacecraft

Images from the orbiter are the most detailed yet of the planet's discrete auroras, ultraviolet emissions that follow the patterns of a decaying magnetic field.

Images taken by Hope's onboard spectrometer (left hand panel) and an artist's impression (right) show discrete auroras on Mars's night side.Credit: Emirates Mars Mission

The United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft has taken the most detailed pictures yet of the ‘discrete auroras’ of Mars. The ultraviolet emissions — seen by the orbiter’s onboard spectrometer — arise when solar wind runs into magnetic fields that emanate from Mars’s crust. Charged particles then collide with oxygen in the upper atmosphere, causing it to glow.

Hope, formally known as the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), arrived at Mars in February and started its official science run on 23 May. The primary science goals of the 1.35-tonne, US$200-million mission focus on the planet’s atmosphere, not on its magnetism, so the aurora images came as a bonus. “Seeing it has been just a gift,” says Hessa Al Matroushi, the EMM’s science lead at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.

Mars researchers had previously detected ‘diffuse’ auroras during solar storms, as well as ‘proton’ auroras emanating from high altitudes when solar-wind protons rip electrons off atoms to form hydrogen¹. The discrete auroras seem to follow the patterns of Mars’s crustal magnetism, which suggests that the planet once had a global magnetic field similar to Earth’s. Those patterns are thought to have frozen in place billions of years ago, when lava solidified in the presence of such a field.

The emissions seen by Hope were first detected by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite in 2004, and have been previously imaged by NASA’s MAVEN probe. But the EMM took “spectacular images”, says Nick Schneider, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder who is part of the MAVEN team. “From my work on the topic, I immediately recognized the way the aurorae draw an outline around the last vestiges of Mars’ decaying magnetic field. These images really capture the fact that Mars has lost its global field, the suspected cause of the disappearance of its earlier thick atmosphere.”

Al Matroushi says that her team plans to publish a study based on the observations.

Quelle: nature

----

Update: 9.07.2021

.

In an ultraviolet glow, auroras on Mars spotted by UAE orbiter

Auroras on Mars are different from those on Earth because the red planet is thought to have lost its global magnetic field billions of years ago.

A spacecraft around Mars has captured the clearest views yet of alien auroras on the red planet.

The United Arab Emirates' Hope probe, which arrived at Mars in early February, spotted the scattered glow of auroras in the Martian night sky. The stunning observations could help scientists better understand the atmosphere of Mars and how auroras on the red planet differ from similar light shows that are visible on Earth.

The United Arab Emirates' Hope orbiter captured the ultraviolet glow from scattered auroras on Mars.Emirates Mars Mission

Auroras occur when charged particles from space interact with atoms in the atmosphere, energizing them and causing them to glow. On Earth, this plays out as the northern and southern lights. When high-energy particles from the sun hit the planet's magnetic field, they energize atoms in the upper atmosphere to create spectacular displays of green, purple, red and blue lights.

 

But on Mars, auroras are different because the red planet is thought to have lost its global magnetic field billions of years ago, in a mysterious process that caused Mars' once-thick atmosphere to be slowly stripped away.

"What we see instead are magnetic fields that are kind of unique to Mars," said Justin Deighan, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado and deputy science lead for the Hope orbiter's mission. "They originate from minerals in the crust of Mars that formed during the early solar system, back when we think Mars had a global magnetic field like Earth."

Remnants of Mars' magnetic field are essentially locked into these minerals, which are scattered around the planet, Deighan added.

"Because of that, charged particles don't get funneled toward the north and south poles, like where we typically see auroras on Earth," he said. "On Mars, they're sort of all over the place."

These types of atmospheric light shows, localized over specific magnetic zones, are known as discrete auroras.

Scientists are keen to study auroras on Mars because they not only reveal properties of the planet's atmosphere but can solve other mysteries of the solar system.

Quelle: NBC News

----

Update: 24.07.2021

.

Spacewatch: UAE’s Hope Mars mission hits first anniversary

Hope’s scientific mission is to study atmosphere and climate of Mars and is remarkable success

 

It is one year since the United Arab Emirates launched the Hope space mission from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Kagoshima prefecture, in south-west Japan, to begin its journey to Mars.

By 9 February 2021, Hope had crossed 493m km of space and performed the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) manoeuvre. On 23 March, Hope manoeuvred into its final operating orbit, a highly elliptical path that carried it from 20,000km to 43,000km in altitude above Mars, and, after a period of commissioning the instruments, science operations began on 23 May.

 

Also known as the Emirates Mars Mission, Hope’s success is remarkable. It is the UAE’s first space mission and so to choose such an ambitious target was rather audacious. It made the UAE only the fifth country or organisation to reach Mars. The other four were the US, Russia, the European Space Agency and India. (China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft arrived four days after Hope.)

Hope began in 2006 and was conceptualised to accelerate the UAE’s space sector by developing its scientific community and boosting space education in the country. The scientific mission of Hope is to study the atmosphere and climate of Mars. The first full datasets from the spacecraft’s three science instruments are due back in October 2021.

Quelle: The Guardian

----

Update: 11.02.2022

.

UAE's Hope spacecraft marks 1 year in orbit around Mars

The spacecraft is about halfway through its primary mission.

A view of Elysium Planitia as seen by the UAE's Hope Mars orbiter on March 15, 2021. (Image credit: Emirates Mars Mission/EXI)

It's been a full year since the United Arab Emirates made history when its first-ever interplanetary mission slipped into orbit around Mars. 

The Emirates Mars Mission, also called Hope, launched in July 2020, arrived at the Red Planet seven months later and successfully entered orbit around Mars on Feb. 9, 2021. After a few months in orbit, the mission began its science observations, which are focused on the atmosphere and climate of Mars. 

"We're just really glad to see the progress from the mission," Hessa Al Matroushi, science lead for the mission, told a virtual meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, a NASA advisory group, on Feb. 3. "We're very excited about the science that we're getting from this mission."

In fact, one of the mission's first findings came from data gathered even before the spacecraft entered its formal science observation program. Hope observations confirmed that an elusive phenomenon called the discrete aurorais taking place on the planet's night side. 

Hope's primary mission is planned to last one Martian year (687 Earth days). That timeline is important because mission scientists want to understand how weather and climate work across the entire planet both throughout a day and throughout a year. For example, Al Matroushi said that the team has been studying water cloud features that appear to grow at the beginning and end of the day and shrink in the middle of the day. 

The spacecraft is also designed to help scientists understand how the different layers of Mars' atmosphere interact. 

The mission releases new data every three months, with the next batch scheduled to be posted in April, Al Matroushi noted. 

Hope is the UAE's first mission beyond Earth's orbit and it was launched in conjunction with the nation's 50th anniversary in December 2021. The spacecraft's arrival made the UAE the fifth entity to successfully reach the Red Planet, joining NASA, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency and India; China joined the group just one day after the UAE with its Tianwen-1 mission. 

Since Hope's arrival, the UAE has also announced the mission's successor, an as-yet-unnamed mission to the asteroid belt that the nation hopes will inform both science and exploration. The mission will build directly on the design of the Martian orbiter while tackling new engineering challenges and incorporating UAE industry more deeply. 

At the first anniversary of Hope's arrival, the spacecraft is only about halfway through its primary mission, and the team hopes that there's much more science ahead for the probe. 

"Our main science period ends next year, in April," Al Matroushi said. "We're currently planning for a proposal for the extended mission."

Quelle: SC