UAE's Hope Mars Probe Captures Its First-Ever Breathtaking Image of Mars

After the successful arrival of the United Arab Emirates' Mars probe on the Red Planet on Tuesday, February 9, it has now transmitted the first-ever image it has captured of the planet, which the country says as a "defining moment."

First Captured Images of Hope

The breathtaking image captured by the Hope Mars orbiter was shared on social media by UAE Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with a caption saying, "The transmission of the Hope Probe's first image of Mars is a defining moment in our history and marks the UAE joining advanced nations involved in space exploration. We hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about Mars which will benefit humanity."

According to ScienceAlert, the events last Tuesday was massive for the UAE or as it's the first time an Arab nation has reached Mars.

Nevertheless, the whole journey was challenging.

In a report by CNBC, experts have estimated that the Martian probe only has a 50% chance of successfully entering the Red Planet's orbit as half of all the Mars mission has failed before, but after seven months and millions of miles after, the Hope probe was successful in its first major feat.

Hope will be orbiting and studying Mars for a full Martian year, as per the UAE space agency, which is around two years here on Earth.

The goal is to study the atmosphere of the Red Planet, which may help in future missions to Mars.

According to the agency, the first image captured by the Hope probe was taken 25,000 kilometers above the planet's surface.

It is likely we'll see more images of Mars from the Hope probe in the near future.

Three Martian Visitors

The UAE Mars probe is the first of three Martian visitors to reach the Red Planet this month, which is then followed by China's Tianwen-1 craft that has shared its first image of Mars last week, a day after Hope successfully arrived on Mars.

The final visitor is the United States' Perseverance Mars probe, which is expected to land on the Martian surface on Thursday, February 18.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is highly preparing for the landing, especially the "seven minutes of terror" as the spacecraft carrying Perseverance enters the planet's atmosphere, its descent, and the landing, which would all take seven minutes to complete.

"If there's one thing we know, it's that landing on Mars is never easy," said Marc Etkind, NASA's associate administrator for communications, in a statement published by the space agency.

Perseverance's Touchdown

NASA has created an interactive simulation for people who want to know more about the landing, complete with information as to what will happen in each step and is done in real-time.

The space agency also encourages everyone to tune in on the live coverage and landing commentary from the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Thursday, February 18, starting at 2:15 PM EST, with the scheduled touchdown happening around 3:55 PM EST.

The coverage is available on NASA's website, the NASA App, and the agency's social media accounts.

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Written by: Nhx Tingson