The Nationals published unprecedented pictures of the Moon captured by the Emirati-built spacecraft. Hassan Sajwani, an Emirati-based social influencer, tweeted The National’s story, to which Elon Musk replied, “Congrats UAE!”
Elon Musk praised the UAE for their impressive achievement in space exploration. The UAE’s Hope probe captured unique images of Mars’s moon Deimos, which challenged the previous assumption that it was a captured asteroid.
The mission involved over 200 Emirati engineers, scientists, and researchers, along with three US universities. It was launched in 2020 and arrived in the Red Planet’s orbit in 2021. The spacecraft has been providing crucial data on Mars’s atmospheric conditions and space weather. Such as tracking a massive dust storm for more than two weeks and capturing images of auroras.
The UAE has made history by becoming the first Arab nation to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars. The Hope probe’s mission is to study the Martian atmosphere and provide insights into its climate and weather. The spacecraft was built in partnership with three US universities and launched on a Japanese rocket in July 2020. After traveling for seven months, it arrived in the Red Planet’s orbit on February 2021.
Since its arrival, the Hope probe has been sending back valuable data about weather patterns. It has tracked a massive dust storm on the planet. Moreover, it is providing scientists with a better understanding of how these storms can spread across the planet. It has also captured rare images of the aurora in Mars’s night-side atmosphere, which will help scientists understand the interactions between solar radiation, Mars’s magnetic fields, and the atmosphere.
