Moving to the new orbit

Since arriving in Mars orbit, the Hope probe has been in an elliptical orbit between 22,000km and 44,000km from the planet’s surface, allowing it to observe from much higher above than any other spacecraft.

Now, the inclination of that orbit has changed after the spacecraft performed a manoeuvre called the Lambert orbital transfer.

This means the spacecraft fired its Delta-V thrusters to make manoeuvres that allowed it to move from one elliptical orbit to another.

Two of the three required manoeuvres have already been made, allowing it to reach a new orbit between 20,000km and 43,000km with a 25-degree incline towards the planet.

“Previously, we didn't have any reason to move the orbit,” Ms Al Matroushi said.

“But now we’re exploring a new adventure and science mission.”

What will it study?

Engineers are using the probe’s three main science instruments to capture images and data of the moon.

These include an exploration imager ― a high-resolution camera ― to photograph the moon, and the infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers to measure its temperature and observe its thermophysical properties, including its regolith, or dust.

The first Deimos fly-by took place in late January, and as the probe moves to its closest approach to the moon, it will take high-resolution images.

It will also continue to study atmospheric conditions on Mars. So far, the Emirates Mars Mission team have released six batches of data on the Red Planet, more than 1.7 terabytes 

What's special about Deimos?

Deimos completes an orbit around Mars every 30 hours and is much smaller than its companion, Phobos.

"Like Phobos, Deimos is a small and lumpy, heavily cratered object," Nasa said.

"Its craters are generally smaller than 1.6 miles [2.5km] in diameter, however, and it lacks the grooves and ridges seen on Phobos.

"Deimos also has a thick regolith, perhaps as deep as 328 feet [100m], formed as meteorites pulverised the surface."

The moon has been studied by spacecraft from other space agencies, but Emirati engineers are hoping that their probe will bring new discoveries, including new data on the moon's dark side ― the part that faces the planet.

Quelle: The National

----

Update: 19.02.2023

.

Hope probe to move to a new Mars orbit and observe deimos

The Hope Probe orbits Mars is currently in its elliptic orbit between 20,000 and 43,000 km with a 25-degree incline towards the planet, giving it the unique ability to complete one revolution around the planet every 55 hours, capturing comprehensive data every nine days. The slight change in the Probe's orbit will allow it to capture new observations of Deimos, while capturing data on the red planet's atmosphere. In fact the Deimos fly-by burns change Hope's orbit so minimally that the entirety of the primary mission objectives remain completely unaltered.

-

Celebrating our second year orbiting the red Planet, the Emirates Mars Mission 'Hope Probe', the first Arab-led planetary exploration mission, is transitioning to a new orbit. The orbital transfer will allow the Hope Probe to fly within approximately 150 Km and capture unprecedented data on Deimos, the smaller and outermost of the two natural satellites of Mars.

The new historical move will allow the Hope Probe to transition into a new elliptic orbit around Mars, following a Lambert orbital transfer maneuver utilizing the change in its velocity. The new orbit will facilitate gathering data on Deimos, while allowing the Probe to continue its original mission and capture data on Mars' atmosphere.

Deimos is the least observed compared to the red planet's second moon, Phobos, which has been widely observed since its discovery in 1969. Orbiting Mars on a larger orbit, Deimos completes a revolution around the planet every 30 hours.

"The deimos campaign aims to provide the international scientific community with previously unseen observations and data. The Hope Probe will capture high cadence images and data of the irregularly shaped, crater-heavy moon, during fly-bys at different times." said Eng. Hessa Al Matroushi, Emirates Mars Mission Science Lead

The first Deimos fly-by began late January and continues through February 2023, as the Probe moves to its closet approach to the moon, this allows the Hope Probe's Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI), Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), and the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMUS), to capture high cadence images and detailed observations of the moon.

To enable the orbital transfer maneuver, the Hope Probe completed two out of three maneuvers using its main thrusters in September 2022 and January 2023, marking the first time the thrusters were activated remotely to make the necessary orbital corrections.

The Hope Probe orbits Mars is currently in its elliptic orbit between 20,000 and 43,000 km with a 25-degree incline towards the planet, giving it the unique ability to complete one revolution around the planet every 55 hours, capturing comprehensive data every nine days. The slight change in the Probe's orbit will allow it to capture new observations of Deimos, while capturing data on the red planet's atmosphere. In fact the Deimos fly-by burns change Hope's orbit so minimally that the entirety of the primary mission objectives remain completely unaltered.

The Hope Probe is the culmination of the national space sector's development and knowledge transfer efforts, which began in 2006. Emirati engineers collaborated with international partners to design and develop the UAE's space crafts and national manufacturing and engineering capabilities.

The Probe is equipped with three measurement tools to analyze Mars' atmosphere. Weighing 1350 Kg, equal to a small SUV, the Probe was designed and developed by the engineers of Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, in cooperation with partners from leading international academic institutions, including the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University (ASU).

The Emirates Mars Mission issued six batches of data on the red planet. The first batch size was 110 Gigabytes and was released on 1 October 2021, while the second batch size was 76.5 Gigabyte and was released on 12 January, 2022.

The 57-Gigabyte third batch of data was announced on 1 April 2022, while the fourth batch offered 118.5 Gigabytes of data. The fifth batch of data provided the scientific community with 236.8 Gigabyte of data.

The sixth batch of data offered several observations, which were captured by the Probe's Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS), and the Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS), while the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) captured high cadence images of high dust movement on Mars, on 6 June, 13 June, 22 June, 27 June, 13 July, 22 July, and 12 August, 2022. A series of EXI color composites taken over about six hours on the 24th of September revealed a massive dust storm and dense fog covering Valles Marineris and the surrounding areas from early morning hours until noon, as well as the rapid evolution of the storm.

Quelle: SD

----

Update: 2.04.2023

.

UAE Mars orbiter creates stunning new map of the Red Planet

The map reveals stunning geological features on Mars in three dimensions.

The United Arab Emirates' Hope mission orbits Mars on a elliptical orbit that provides the spacecraft with unique views. (Image credit: NYU Abu Dhabi)

A new map of Mars shows the Red Planet in stunning detail, revealing a wealth of fascinating geological features as seen from orbit. 

The high-resolution map could help scientists answer a number of pressing questions about Mars including how it came to be a dry, arid, and barren landscape despite once being abundant with liquid water. 

The Martian map was created by a team of scientists led by New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Center for Space Science(opens in new tab). The researchers used data collected from orbit around Mars by the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), also known as Hope or Al-Amal.

The map shows the Red Planet through the eyes of Hope's state-of-the-art onboard imaging system, the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI), and is a testament to the growing influence of the UAE in science. In a statement, NYUAD wrote(opens in new tab) that it hopes the new Mars map will motivate young people in the UAE to pursue careers in STEM disciplines.

"We plan to make our map available to the entire planet, as part of the new and more advanced Atlas of Mars, which we have been working on, and will be available in both English and Arabic once published," NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) group leader and research scientist Dimitra Atri said in the statement. "The hope is that this accessibility will make it a great tool for researchers, and also students to learn more about Mars, and showcase the possibilities that the space sector in the UAE can offer."

To create the map, Atri and the team took over 3,000 observations from EXI taken over one Mars year,a period equivalent to two years here on Earth, and stitched them together to build a color composite. The resultant map shows many of the major geological features of the Red Planet in high resolution. 

The map reveals polar ice caps, mountains, and long inactive volcanoes, as well as remnants of ancient rivers, lakes, and valleys that around 3.5 billion years ago overflowed with liquid water. As such, the map could help planetary scientists better understand how the climate of Mars has changed over billions of years resulting in the dry and barren world we observe today.

"The complete Mars map also brings the UAE and the Arab world another step closer to achieving EMM's ambitious mission goal to provide a complete global picture of the Martian climate," Atri added. "More than 30 previous spacecraft have only managed to capture a snapshot of the Mars weather, whilst EMM will follow the seasonal changes throughout a Martian year."

By allowing scientists to study the distribution of impact craters across the planet's arid surface, the map also reveals the history of early asteroidbombardment of Mars. As such the composite of EXI images could also help researchers better understand the conditions in the tumultuous early solar system when space rock impacts were far more common than today. 

The Hope orbiter is the first interplanetary mission from the UAE and from the Arab world as a whole. Commissioned by UAE leaders in 2014, the spacecraft was launched from Japan on July 20, 2020. After a journey of around seven months, Hope reached orbit around Mars on February 9, 2021.

"The Hope probe is helping researchers to create this global image of the planet due to its strategic position," Atri said. "Hope circles Mars in an elliptical orbit that allows it to observe from much further away than any other spacecraft. This strategic position is helping researchers to create a global image of the planet."

Quelle: SC

----

Update: 25.04.2023

.

„HOPE“-DATEN ZEIGEN:

Marsmond Deimos ist kein eingefangener Asteroid

Der Marsmond Deimos (Bildmitte oben) in seinem Orbit um den Roten Planeten

(Bild: APA/AFP/Emirates Mars Mission)

Der Mars hat zwei Monde. Der kleinere davon wird Deimos genannt und seit 2021 von der Weltraumsonde „Hope“ der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate inspiziert. Sein Material stammt laut Spektralanalysen ganz offenbar vom Mutterplaneten und deshalb ist er wohl kein eingefangener Asteroid, wie bisher gedacht.

Deimos sei eher ein bei einem Aufprall herausgeschlagener Teil des Roten Planeten, berichteten Forscher der Emirates Space Mission (EMM) jetzt bei der Generalversammlung der European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Wien.

Die Weltraumsonde „Hope“ wurde am 19. Juli 2020 vom japanischen Weltraumzentrum Tanegashima Space Center auf eine Reise zum Mars geschickt und umkreist ihn seit Februar 2021. Sie fliegt immer wieder nahe am Marsmond Deimos vorbei, berichtete Hessa Al Matroushi, die wissenschaftliche Leiterin der EMM. Durch „kleine Navigationsmanöver“ sei es gelungen, dass am 10. März 2023, als „Hope“ ihn in nur 100 Kilometern Entfernung passierte, alle Messinstrumente in seine Richtung sahen.

Wendet Mars immer selbe Seite zu
Deimos umkreist den Nachbarplaneten Mars in einer Kreisbahn von 23.500 Kilometern Radius, dafür benötigt er je 30 Stunden. Wie der Erdmond hat auch Deimos eine gebundene Rotation, das heißt, er wendet dem Roten Planeten immer dieselbe Seite zu. Laut gängiger Theorie wäre er ein vom Mars eingefangener Asteroid.

Die Spektralmessungen durch die Instrumente der Weltraumsonde weisen aber auf eine andere Herkunft von Deimos hin, so Christopher Edwards vom Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science der Northern Arizona University (USA), der die Daten von Hopes „Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer“ (EMIRS) analysierte: „Die Infrarot-Eigenschaften dieses Körpers sind viel ähnlicher jenen des basaltischen Mars als von D-Typ-Asteroiden, die oft als Analoge zu spektralen Eigenschaften von Deimos verwendet werden“.

Die EMIRS-Daten zeigten auch, dass der Marsmond keine grobkörnige, blockartige Oberfläche hat, wie solche Asteroiden, sondern dass sehr feine Partikel ihn bedecken, so wie den Erdenmond. Auch die aufgenommenen UV-Spektren des „Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer“ (EMUS) an Bord der Sonde lassen die Forscher annehmen, dass „Deimos“ kein einstiger Asteroid ist, so Justin Deigan vom Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics der University of Colorado Boulder (USA).

Deimos war wohl einst Teil des Mars
Sie zeigen nämlich an, dass dort kaum organische oder Kohlenstoff-hältige Mineralien sind, wie es bei diesen der Fall wäre. „Demios stammt demnach wohl vom Mars selber ab“, sagte Edwards: „Wir glauben, dass er durch einen gigantischen Einschlag von ihm losgelöst wurde.“

Quelle: Kronen Zeitung

+++

First up-close images of Mars’s little-known moon Deimos

Images from the UAE’s Hope mission suggest that the moonlet’s composition is similar to that of the red planet’s surface.

The moonlet Deimos is made of the same type of material as Mars, the latest observations suggest.Credit: Emirates Mars Mission

The United Arab Emirates’ space probe Hope has taken the first high-resolution images of the farside of Mars’s moonlet Deimos. The observations add weight to the theory that Deimos formed together with Mars, rather than as an asteroid that was captured in the planet’s orbit, mission scientists say.

Hope, formally known as the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), performed a fly-by — the first of many — on 10 March. EMM science lead Hessa Al Matroushi recalls the excitement when the first images streamed in, looking down at the 12.4-kilometre-wide moonlet. “Mars was in the background — and that was just mind blowing, honestly,” says Al Matroushi, who is at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She reported the results at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna on 24 April.

Like Earth’s Moon, Deimos is tidally locked to its planet, meaning that any observations from a low Mars orbit or the planet’s surface are always of the same side of the moonlet.

But compared with the flotilla of missions that have visited the red planet, Hope has an unusually high and elongated orbit, which reaches more than 40,000 kilometres above Mars’s surface at its highest point, explains Al Matroushi. This enables it to observe Deimos from above and to image its farside. (EMM is unable to visit Mars’s other natural satellite, Phobos, which circles the planet at less than 10,000 kilometres from the surface — lower than the lowest point in the probe’s orbit.)

During the 10 March fly-by, the mission team used all three onboard instruments to take readings spanning from the infrared to the extreme ultraviolet. The relatively flat spectrum the scientists saw is suggestive of the type of material seen on Mars’s surface, rather than the carbon-rich rock often found in asteroids, suggesting that Deimos was formed from the same material as the planet. “If there were carbon or organics, we would see spikes in specific wavelengths,” she says.

The 1.35-tonne, US$200-million spacecraft launched on a Japanese rocket in July 2020 and arrived at Mars in February 2021. With frequent observations of Mars’s atmosphere, its main science goal was to study seasonal variations in the planet’s atmosphere and weather patterns. But once that phase was concluded with propellant to spare, mission control fired the onboard thrusters in a manoeuvre that allows the spacecraft to intersect with Deimos’s orbit multiple times. “We don’t want to get a one-time observation of Deimos,” says Al Matroushi. “We knew we wanted more.”

Quelle: nature

----

Update: 11.02.2024

.

Emirates Mars Mission publishes observations across full Martian year

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, today released a series of unique new observations drawn from the first measurements of Mars’ atmosphere across a full Martian year (two full Earth years).

The release celebrates the third year of science data gathering around Mars by the Hope probe and marks the accomplishment of the Mission’s stated science objectives.

Salem Butti Al Qubaisi, Director-General of the UAE Space Agency, said, “The Emirates Mars Mission was conceived to provide a national challenge that would accelerate the development not only of the UAE’s engineering capabilities, but to disrupt our education, research and innovation ecosystems. There is no doubt at all that it has succeeded in that beyond our wildest expectations. At the outset, the UAE’s leadership made it clear that EMM should make a significant scientific contribution, and we can now say that the mission not only fulfilled its original science objectives, but has significantly surpassed them.”

EMM was designed to achieve three objectives that complemented questions posed by the global grouping of Mars scientists and researchers, MEPAG - the Mars Exploration Programme Analysis Group. Hope set out to monitor the global, diurnal, and seasonal changes that the Martian atmosphere undergoes due to year-to-year variations including those caused by solar forcing that result in atmospheric escape – particularly of Hydrogen and Oxygen and the temporal and spatial behaviour of Mars’ atmosphere.

Hoor Al Mazmi, EMM Project Manager, commented, “We can say with confidence that EMM has blown past its original stated science objectives. Not only have we achieved our goals, and taken Hope into an extended mission, but we have added unique new discoveries, from investigations of new types of aurora through to the most extensive new observations of Mars’ least known moon, Deimos.”

“Hope’s unique elliptical orbit supports these unique observations, giving us a near-complete picture of the planet’s atmospheric dynamics every nine days. That has enabled us to create an incredible depiction of Mars’ changing atmosphere day and night, across the seasons and throughout a full Martian year.” Said Mohsen Al Awadhi, Director of Space Missions Department at UAE Space Agency, “With the probe performing optimally, we performed a manoeuvre to support a season of Deimos observations and I can say today that we still have the option, from an engineering point of view, of further extending the mission.”

A series of visuals shared by the Emirates Mars Mission’s Science Team to celebrate the third anniversary include an animation of the Oxygen emission changing over more than one Martian year captured by its Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer, EMUS. Acquired when the spacecraft passed over local times around 09:00 and 15:00, these images of atomic oxygen emission at a wavelength of 130.4 nm revealed the vigorous dynamics of the upper atmosphere of Mars, which is slowly escaping into space. The EMUS videos showed the variability of oxygen across the Martian year as the planet moves closer and further away from the sun. These global views of the oxygen emission have never been seen before this mission.

In addition to the EMUS animation, the EMM science team shared Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMIRS) images showing daily global maps that the instrument gets of dust and ice over a full Martian year, enabling analysis and better understanding of the daily variation of these constituents.

Finally, the science team has revealed Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EXI) images that show how the planet changes visually using a sequence of 12 images taken across an entire Martian year exhibiting the impacts of seasonal change on the planet.

The Hope Probe carries three instruments:
EXI – The Emirates Exploration Imager is a digital camera that captures high resolution images of Mars along with measuring water ice in the lower atmosphere through the UV bands.
EMIRS – The Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer measures global distribution of dust, ice, and water vapour in the Martian lower atmosphere.
EMUS – The Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer measures oxygen and carbon monoxide in the thermosphere and the variability of hydrogen and oxygen in the exosphere.

EMM and the Hope probe are the culmination of a knowledge transfer and development effort started in 2006, which has seen Emirati engineers working with partners around the world to develop the UAE’s spacecraft design, engineering, and space science capabilities. Hope is a spacecraft that carries three instruments to study Mars’ atmosphere. Weighing some 1,350 kg, and approximately the size of a small SUV, the spacecraft was designed and developed by MBRSC engineers working with knowledge transfer partners, including LASP at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Arizona State University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Quelle: WAM