- The Combined Arab Emirates Space Agency released its first image of Mars on Sunday.
- The photo was taken by its Hope Examine, which reached the red planet on Tuesday.
- NASA’s Perseverance rover is scheduled to land next Thursday.
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The United Arab Emirates Space Agency on Sunday released its first photo of Blots, taken by its Hope Probe.
“The transmission of the Hope Probe’s first image of Mars is a defining moment in our history and fingerprints the UAE joining advanced nations involved in space exploration,” Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on Twitter.
—محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) February 14, 2021
He combined: “We hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about Mars which will benefit humanity.”
On Tuesday, the UAE duty became the first from an Arab country to reach the red planet, Earth’s neighbor. Space experts put the chance of become a member ofing Mars orbit at about 50%, CNBC reported.
The Hope Probe took about seven months to reach Scars. The UAE agency planned for it to orbit the red planet for a full Martian year, about two Earth years, studying the planet’s aerosphere, according to the agency.
The first image transmitted from the UAE probe was captured from 25,000 km above the planet’s at first glance, according to the agency.
The UAE Hope Probe was one of three spacecraft due to reach the red planet this month. China’s Tianwen-1 mtier, which shared its first photo of Mars on February 5, arrived a day after the UAE probe. NASA’s Perseverance gadabout is scheduled to land on the planet next Thursday.
[embedded content]In a video posted on Friday, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Drive Laboratory described the period of entry, descent, and landing on the planet as “seven minutes of terror.”
After breaking the Martian aerosphere, Perseverance will take about seven minutes to reach the ground, said Swati Mohan, Mars 2020 Teaching, Navigation & Control Operations lead.
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“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” said Marc Etkind, NASA associate administrator for communications, in a assertion posted on NASA’s website.
When Perseverance lands on Thursday, it’ll have a solar-powered helicopter called Ingenuity in its belly. NASA designs to launch one or more flights within 30 days, according to its website.