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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
...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
Women in the UAE are allowed to drive, and can dress (more or less) as they would at home. On the other hand, if you (as a woman) get raped, do not report it! Chances are that you'll be charged with "extramarital sex", a serious offence, and with some other charges piled on top like consumption of alcohol in a public area. The UAE is actually quite liberal compared to most other countries in the area, but they aren't quite there yet.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
So what? That was then, it's not now, and they've done fuck all since.
P.S. And they didn't invent Arabic numbers, before anyone starts.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
(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?
It's pretty well accepted that Archimedes developed calculus and wrote about it. And then his manuscript was erased by Christians so the parchment could be used for a bible.
History is full of Greek, Arab and other discoveries and sharing of discoveries between cultures interspersed with religious nut-jobs stepping in and messing things up, either intentionally or through ignorance.
Have gnu, will travel.
> "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.
Science only? No military purposes?
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
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
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
You say you are not conflating Arabs and Islam, but then go on and do just that. And throw in Pakistan too, for good measure. It isn't crypto-racism, it's mindless, ignorant, scared-shitless-by-the-big-scary-world xenophobia. It's not reasonable to think ICMBs have anything to do with this, unless you are a xenophobe, I guess.
but no one thinks that he developed anything that you would see in a modern calculus course.
This is true. But then it was only a few weeks in my high school calculus class to get from infintesimals to full blown differentials and integrals. And this is what we credit to Leibniz in the 17th century. So yes, there's more to calculus than that. But from Leibniz to now took 400 years. Archimedes did sugest the idea of infintesimals. So it looks like that idea sat in the dustbin of learning for 2000 years before Leibniz picked it up again.
Have gnu, will travel.