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Arab Mars Probe Planned For 2020
SpankiMonki sends word that the United Arab Emirates has announced plans to launch a Mars mission in July, 2020. They want to send a probe (named "al-Amal",or "Hope") that will orbit the Red Planet for several years. It will analyze the Martian atmosphere, observing clouds and dust storms to help scientists figure out how water gradually escaped from Mars over a long time scale.
[A]fter being inserted into an elliptical 55-hour orbit in the first quarter of 2021, Hope will carry out its nominal two-year science mission at altitudes ranging between 22,000 to 44,000 kilometers. From there, the mission will investigate how the lower and upper levels of the Martian atmosphere are connected. One goal is to create the first global picture of how the Martian atmosphere changes throughout the day and between seasons.
It will be the first time the Arabs have used science in 800 years.
Observing atmospheric phenomena and the dynamics of water is a very fitting viewpoint for the UAE. As various countries gain capability, the impact of cultural differences might get even stronger in the choices of viewpoints to research questions.
It will find that infidel rover, Curiosity. Beep out, "Allahu Akbar!" then ram into the red planet causing a gigantic fireball which will destroy that non-believing robot!
For its martyrdom it will receive 72 uninitialized variables in computer paradise.
(Joking aside, kudos to the Arabs if they are able to do it and keep their knives off my throat.)
"Breath" is a noun. "Breathe" is a verb.
returning to the stars. Quite poetic, for a country who worships the Alhajar Al-Aswad (The Black Stone). Saul, who became Paul, also was spooked into religion by a meteorite...Constantine's "vision" may well have also been burning, falling rocks. The UAE most likely has some pretty advanced tech for looking at water...launching a probe to Mars isn't the difficult part. That is getting the probe deployed and functioning properly once it's there lol.
It's the UAE. The Emirates. Do you write about the "Caucasian Moon missions", or the Apollo program?
They'll probably contract with one of the major US/European contractors & put their flag on the rocket. Though I don't see any problem with that--they have the money, might as well do something useful with it besides build up big piles of sand in the gulf.
Just to blow up our rover.
You know, if an Arab state is moving from Mediaeval barbarism to Enlightenment, maybe it would be a good time to say something positive.
Five years to get from no rockets to an interplanetary orbiting probe. The video they produced clearly shows the launch from somewhere near UAE, so they're not just going to hire an existing launch-proven company/state to give their satellite a ride. Ambitious. Highly collaborative with the existing science community. Aces. There's a woman as Co-I on the project - well done. They're not going to try and land, good idea. And the not-landing part will fill in some pretty significant gaps in mars atmospheric science. The only true unknowns are how many freshman US legislators will become outraged and demand a congressional hearing.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
We already have our flag there, go away. Besides, the people in the UAE couldn't make a bottle rocket if their lives depended on it. Other people will have to build it for them.
space probes?
Here come the Fremen
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If you click on the first "Mars" link in the article, it takes you to the Mars food company.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
So another country wants to develop space capability, and this is what Slashdot has to say about it? A bunch of half-assed racist remarks? It's not just shameful, it's lame. Of all places, here we should be celebrating people choosing to take part in scientific progress, not getting involved in ethnic or regional pissing contests.
Another "because we have the cash" vanity project.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
The UAE space agency has been created in 2014 and has invested more than 5 billions of dollars in various space industries.
Seriously. Good for you.
It sounds like you've got really interesting research goals for this mission, and I wish you great success.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
So the question here is, if they send people to the moon.. will they allow women to drive the car and will they dress with s burka inside the spacesuit?
...that will be the first useful thing done by Arabs-as-a-collective ever since the end of the Middle Ages.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
I love it when people comment about being 800 years in the past etc...
https://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_why_is_x_the_unknown
Learn where Algebra came from and most of the stuff history contains comes from please.
(NASA Chief Charlie) Bolden said President Barack Obama had charged him with three things upon becoming NASA administrator.
"One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering," Bolden said.
The Prez might get a Nobel Prize in Physics from this mission.
they are tired of us using all their oil?
eg
And the earth We have spread out (like a carpet); set thereon mountains firm and immovable; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance.
Qur'an 15:19
And Allah has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out),
Qur'an 71:19
Someone modded down the comment because they don't want people to see what is really in Islamic dogma. Wonder who that could be?
> "It will... help scientists figure out how water gradually escaped from Mars over a long time scale."
Early astronomers assumed that the Sun, stars, and planets revolved around the Earth and devoted time and study to figuring out how, in what manner. They didn't succeed because the Earth isn't the center of the solar system.
Now, some scientists are assuming that Mars had a bunch of water that gradually escaped over a long time scale, and they're proposing to devote time and study to figuring out "how."
I've got an idea: Why not devote time and study to figure out "what" is going on, and not "how" assumptions can be bolstered? Just saying.
They can buy it from the same people they get their nukes and missiles from: Pakistan, China and North Korea. If they buy it from North Korea then they can launch their ICBM, er, space probe, from a submarine they can buy from China.
is to be the first to behead innocent Martians in the name of allah.
Yo Ape Pee Keh, you lost your Bold keys!
Yo Anonymous Punk: Still haven't found your balls you never had. Stalking me by unidentifiable ac posts proves that much.
APK
P.S.=> Let me guess - you're a "islamic militant 'terrorist'", right? Typical sneak move on your part then as usual, nothing more since when it comes to a real fight, we all know what you & yours are REALLY like and what the results always are for you, don't we? Yes, we do... apk
Modded Off Topic because no mention of hosts file.
Science only? No military purposes?
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
That's not the topic. You're off topic.
Desert dwellers send probes to a desert planet.
Who would have thought.
I would like to share in this sort of optimism, but the simple fact is modern rocketry developed out of a desire for long range ballistic missiles and most of the other countries that have major space programs tend to be nuclear powers. I don't know offhand how difficult it would be for UAE to get their hands on enriched uranium, (or how difficult it would be for them to sell some large ballistic missiles to, say, Pakistan at some point down the road), but I would tentatively suggest that these details are worth keeping a close eye on as we applaud the official/stated goal of scientific exploration.
What arabs lack in sceitific strength, they have in life experience. Mars is a dry desert, and nobody knows dry desert better than arabs. NASA has to travel far, and no NASA engineer has any experience with climate similar to Mars.
Arabs just need to exit their door, and it is like being on Mars. Huge advantage over both USA as well as Europe, Russia and China.
What is the most complex item you can buy in your local store manufactures in an arab country?
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
PC garbage. Arabs are fully capable of scientific glory, and a very long time ago they (as a culture) proved as much. And, of course, individual Arabs continue to prove it today as well. However, I don't really see the point in pretending that the Arab world, as a collective whole, doesn't have some very serious issues right now re: science and education:
* More books are translated into the Spanish language every year than have been translated into Arabic over the past 1000 years.
* The most famous Arabic nonreligious work of literature, One Thousand and One Nights, cannot legally be bought in uncensored form in any Arab nation.
* Only two Arabs have ever won a Nobel prize (Ignoring the ridiculous Peace Prize.)
* Rejection of the theory of evolution by natural selection among the Arab countries appears to be a much much bigger problem than it is in, say, Texas.
* A prominent and politically active nuclear scientist in Pakistan suggested that the magical powers of motherfucking genies could used to solve an energy crisis. (As it happens, genies, or 'djinn', are described in the Qur'an.) And his reputation as a scientist did not appear to suffer significantly afterwards. (OK fine, he's not Arabic, but that's sort of the point--no one cares about the genetics of Arab people in this conversation. Neither are we conflating Arabs and Islam--we're simply pointing out that the Arabic world is at this point in history completely and hopelessly contaminated with conservative Islam and that this has been tremendously stifling.)
If people want to view this kind of criticism as crypto-racism, well I can't stop them. But just as it's perfectly fair to criticize American culture when it comes to religion or guns or whatever bit about it you don't like, I think it's reasonable to be a bit skeptical and suspicious (ICBMs anyone?) when a scheme like this pops up.
I can imagine it will be a russian rocket, operated by russian personnel using russian technology with a "UAE" sticker on top
Will it have one hump, or two?
Just another day in Paradise
Not that there's any rivalry between them and UAE, of course.
1729 = 9^3 + 10^3 = 1^3 + 12^3
Will the probe have to stop 5 times a day and tilt towards Mecca?
If so, it is going to take a lot longer to get to Mars than any probe from us Infidels!!!
Probe to base: Conditions here are just like Earth! Dry, sandy, extreme temperature variations, inhospitable to life...