The Emirates Mars Mission team has announced that the Hope Probe, which successfully entered the orbit of Mars last week, has sent the first image of the Red Planet.
Having travelled more than 493 million kilometres over the past seven months, the image was taken by the EXI digital exploration camera, one of the probe’s three scientific instruments.
It is a multi-wavelength radiation tolerant camera that can take 12-megapixel images and took the image from an altitude of around 25,000km above the Martian surface.
The North pole of Mars is in the upper left of the image while also capturing the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons (centre), emerging into the early morning sunlight.
Also prominent are the three large shield volcanoes of Tharsis Montes (Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arisia Mons).
Further to the East or right of the volcanoes lie Noctis Labyrinthus and the Valles Marineris system of canyons, filled with clouds. Ice clouds are present over the southern highlands (lower right) as well as surrounding the volcano Alba Mons (upper left).
Clouds can also be seen above the limb (top of image and middle right, when looking between the planet and space).
من ارتفاع ٢٥ ألف كم عن سطح الكوكب الأحمر .. أول صورة للمريخ بأول مسبار عربي في التاريخ
The first picture of Mars captured by the first-ever Arab probe in history, 25,000 km above the Red Planet's surface pic.twitter.com/Qgh2Cn3JPF
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 14, 2021
The picture is the first of more than 1,000GB of new Mars data that the probe will send back to earth and that will be shared for free with more than 200 academic and scientific institutions around the world.
For the first time, it will study the link between weather change and atmospheric loss, a process that may have caused the Red Planet’s surface corrosion and the loss of its upper atmosphere.
The mission will provide deeper insights into the climatic dynamics of the Red Planet through observing the weather phenomena in Mars such as the massive famous dust storms that have been known to engulf the Red Planet, as compared to the short and localised dust storms on earth.
The UAE made history on February 9, as the first Arab nation, and the fifth in the world, to reach Mars after the Hope Probe successfully entered the Red Planet’s orbit at 7.42pm.
The probe’s entry to Mars’ orbit marked the end of four of the six stages of its space journey that started on July 20. The probe is currently entering the ‘transition to science’ phase before it commences the ‘science’ phase to study the Martian atmosphere.
The last phase of the probe’s journey is set to begin in April. It will officially enter the science phase to complete the first-ever planet-wide, 24×7 picture of Mars’ atmospheric dynamics and weather daily, throughout all seasons for one full Martian year (687 earth days) until April 2023.
Since its inception in 2014, the Emirates Mars Mission has successfully overcome a number of challenges, most notably the conditions imposed by the global coronavirus pandemic. It was developed in six years while similar Mars missions have taken between 10 to 12 years.
The project was also completed at half the standard cost of other scientific projects to Mars, as it cost $200 million, and is considered among the lowest in the world compared to similar missions.
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