Humanity has come a long way in exploring the wonders of the universe. With the help of science, studying celestial bodies has become easier. When the planets favorably align, experts can send missions on Mars at a cheaper rate in terms of fuel required every 26 months or so.
NASA already has a lot of experience in this area, and rarely misses its schedule. For the past eight biennial launch windows, NASA was able to launch its spacecraft six times to Mars.
This summer, Air & Space Magazine reported that the United States would not be the only country exploring the red planet. Newcomers, China, and the United Arab Emirates are ready to hop on the Mars train. UAE is the first Arab country to attempt a planetary mission.
Meanwhile, the USA is determined to up its game with the first half of a two-part Mars mission to collect rock samples from the red planet and bring them to Earth.
But due to technical delays and the coronavirus pandemic, the European/Russian Exomars mission was forced to miss the launch window this year. The global pandemic has affected everyone's plans, complicating logistics of final testing and transport to the launch pad.
But as of late April, the spacecraft of the three countries are still scheduled to leave the planet for Mars in July and is expected to arrive next February.
The United Arab Emirates' Hope
The United Arab Emirates pride itself on being a technologically progressive country. In September 2019, the country sent its first astronaut on an eight-day trip to the International Space Station. This year, the young and oil-rich county is planning to do something that only a few space agencies have tried, that is, to orbit a spacecraft on Mars.
Hope or Emirati Mars Mission(EMM) will have three specialized cameras to study the Martian atmosphere at visible, infrared, and ultraviolet wavelengths. For one Martian year, the spacecraft will travel a high orbit designed to observe various locations at different times of the day. It will take first-time measurements of the lower atmosphere where the planet's weather, including dust storms, develops.
The Emirati scientists were given marching orders by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum that Hope should arrive at Mars before UAE's 50th founding anniversary in December 2021. Project Manager, Omran Sharaf, recounted in a 2018 TED talk that Hope's mission is to make a significant contribution to science and not just to repeat what others have done.
China has Set its Sight on Mars
After sending two landers on the moon, namely, Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4 to explore the lunar surface with cameras, spectrometers, and other devices, China has set its eyes on the red planet. Its space program is sending both an orbiter and a rover on its first try of exploring Mars.
Named Tianwen-1 (Questions to Heaven) after a Chinese poem, the five-ton-orbiter-plus-lander will use the same techniques the Chang'e lunar missions employed on the lunar surface to Mars, although landing on Mars is trickier than coming down on the moon. This could be the biggest problem for the newcomers to Mars exploration.
Mars Sample-Return Mission
Scheduled for a July 17 launch from Cape Canaveral NASA's Perseverance rover might be the most advanced Mars mission yet and constitutes the first part of a two-part mission of NASA. The American space agency plans to conduct a Mars sample-return mission by collecting rocks and soil, and cache them on Mars, and retrieve them at some later time and return the samples on Earth.
Scientists want to determine if some life form has ever inhabited the planet. It is the job of the Perseverance rover to look for pieces of evidence that the red planet was able to support life in the past.
