“Defining Moment” as Hope Probe conveys its stunning first image of Mars

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The UAE space agency released its first photo of Mars, taken by its Hope Probe, on Sunday.

“The transmission of the first image of Mars from the Probe of Hope is a turning point in our history and marks the United Arab Emirates joining the advanced nations involved in space exploration,” the sheikh said. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Twitter.

He added: “We hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about Mars that will benefit humanity.”

On Tuesday, the UAE mission became the first in an Arab country to reach the red planet, Earth’s neighbor. Space experts put the chance of entering Mars into orbit at around 50 percent, CNBC reported.

The Hope Probe took about seven months to reach Mars. According to the agency, the UAE agency planned to orbit the red planet for an entire Martian year, about two years on Earth, studying the planet’s atmosphere.

The first image transmitted from the UAE probe was captured 25,000 km above the planet’s surface, according to the agency.

The Hope UAE spacecraft was one of three spacecraft to reach the red planet this month. The Chinese vessel Tianwen-1, which shared its first photo of Mars on February 5, arrived a day after the UAE probe. NASA’s Perseverance rover is scheduled to land on the planet next Thursday.

In a video released Friday, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory described the period of entry, descent and landing on the planet as “seven minutes of terror.”

After breaking the Martian atmosphere, perseverance will take about seven minutes to reach land, said Swati Mohan, leader of Mars 2020’s guidance, navigation and control operations.

“If there’s one thing we know, it’s that landing on Mars is never easy,” Marc Etkind, NASA’s associate communications administrator, said in a statement posted on NASA’s website.

When Perseverance lands on Thursday, it will have a solar-powered helicopter called Ingenuity in its belly. NASA plans to launch one or more flights within 30 days, according to its website.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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