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.

Comments

This will be a historic mission.

[Anonymous Coward]

It will be the first time the Arabs have used science in 800 years.

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[cheesybagel]

They'll probably just pay someone else to do it for them with the oil money as usual.

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[Anonymous Coward]

Its being built in Colorado by CU

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[Voice of satan]

Quite a lot of people will benefit form this "arab" mission i guess. Other sources mentioned a contract between Abou dhabi and France for the formation of experts in the CNES center of Toulouse.

I think it is a good thing they invest their money and their pride in this kind of stuff. More global funding for science and also some arab kids will be able to identify with something they will be proud of and doesn't involve blowing up people or some retarded religion.

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[hey!]

Pop quiz: what is the top Arab engineering school? Alright too hard. Name *one* Arab research university.

Now answer this question: does the fact that most people find these questions hard reflect on *Arab* ignorance, or their own?

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[itzly]

I have no idea what the top German/Chinese/Russian/Israeli engineering schools are either, still there are many more Arabs driving German cars, than the other way around.

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[itzly]

And as a side benefit, they'll learn how to launch ICBMs at the same time.

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[hey!]

Really? You've never heard of Beijing University? Or the University of Heidelberg? Does "Max Planck Institute", "Moscow State University", or "Tel-Aviv University" ring a bell? Well then why not "King Saud University" or "Cairo University"?

As for the production of cars, that's not a measure of a country's intellectual attainment; it's a measure of a country's industrialization. Show me *any* region that has a resource extraction dominated economy that designs automobiles. I can name just *one* off the top of my head, and that's Iran.

There's an automatic assumption people make that when others disagree with them it's because they're stupid or ignorant. You can see that in the recent debate over the Iranian nuclear deal. There's an implicit assumption that the Iranian government is a bunch of uneducated, provincial hicks. Now I think Ali Khamenei is a terrible person, but it's not because he's ignorant. He is, in fact, superbly educated by any reasonable standard. As are many leaders in the Iranian government and opposition. The Iranian foreign minster Dr. Zarif holds three advanced degrees from US universities.

This kind of bigoted thinking is going to get us into trouble. Iran is not an Arab country, but it gets lumped in with Arab countries in American perception as an intellectually backward Muslim backwater. This is a dangerous attitude to take. Iran has substantial intellectual and technological resources to draw upon. Despite their names differing by only one letter, Iran is not Iraq. While Sadaam wasted his money on showy wonder-weapons like super-guns, the Iranians have built a fleet of advanced diesel subs that can operate in the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. They have formidable industrial capability, including indigenous aerospace, automotive and electronic industries. While there is little doubt we would win in an invasion of Iran, it's far from clear it'd be the kind of cakewalk we had in the Iraq invasion.

Americans need to write this down and paste it in their hats: just because someone doesn't think like you doesn't guarantee he's ignorant or stupid.

Re:This will be a historic mission.

[ZiggyM]

Hopefully they wont pay this guy: "Saudi Cleric Reveals The Sun Rotates arround the Earth" http://www.huffingtonpost.co.u...

Fitting Viewpoint

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Arab?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the UAE. The Emirates. Do you write about the "Caucasian Moon missions", or the Apollo program?

Re:Arab?

[itzly]

Do you write about the "Caucasian Moon missions"

Maybe, if they were launched from the United Caucasian States of America.

Re:Arab?

[phayes]

Hypersensitive much?

UAE: United Arab Emirates
USA: United States of America

Calling it an Arab mission when the word Arab is in the name of the country that is financing it is neither more nor less precise or racist than calling the Apollo the American moon program -- which is often is.

Is the UAE the only Arabic country? No, but then neither are the citizens of the USA the only Americans.

Re:Arab?

[NoKaOi]

Hypersensitive much?

UAE: United Arab Emirates
USA: United States of America

Except that the word "Arab" does not refer to the UAE. The proper term is "Emirati," the word "Arab" means something else. The point the OP was making is that many people in the US are ignorant and seem to lump everything "Arab" together as if there were only one "Arab" country (or that there is no difference between Arab countries), and I think your ignorance helped prove his point.

Re:Metorite cult

[phayes]

It's not a rover, it's an orbiter. The only thing that need to be deployed are the three solar panels & that will be in Earth orbit - the spectrometers & an imager do not need to be deployed.

My question is how they will be communicating with it. Does the UAE have the capability to do so alone or will they be relying on NASA's DSN?

Progress

[Livius]

You know, if an Arab state is moving from Mediaeval barbarism to Enlightenment, maybe it would be a good time to say something positive.

Re:Progress

[Tablizer]

I don't think it's about superstition, it's about accepting pluralism and other opinions. Both sides realized the hard way that the religious wars were dragging both sides down, and learned how to live together. Some of it was a form of "let God decide in the afterlife" rather than let humans do all the punishing here and now. The government's role then shifted to keeping the peace instead of enforcing religious rules and doctrine.

Interesting.

[jpellino]

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.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Way to go, UAE!

[hey!]

Seriously. Good for you.

It sounds like you've got really interesting research goals for this mission, and I wish you great success.

Re:Metorite cult

[antiperimetaparalogo]

Saul, who became Paul, also was spooked into religion by a meteorite

How do you figure?

He wrote something bad about Muslims so he had to write something bad about Christians also, because you know... it's Slashdot, so "all religions are the same"...

Anyway, he probably is refering to Paul's (a.k.a. Saul) sudden blindness -for few days-, before he became a Christian, but the story is: while persecuting Christians, Jesus appeared to him making Paul blind, BUT also telling him "Saul, Saul, why you persecute me?"... and the great story continues, but if you are interested you should read it in the Acts of Apostloles and his own Epistles, both found in the New Testament - by the way, since New Testament is originally writen in Greek, i can ensure you that Paul was not "blinded by a meteorite", nor was Great Constantine (the other mentioned by the parent comment as "meteorite blinded") who thanks to a vision before a battle with the Cross and the Greek phrase "with this you win" ("En Touto Nika") became a Christian.

DISCLAIMER: I am a Greek (Orthodox) Christian.

MIssion Accomplished

[tomhath]

(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.