The United Arab Emirates Successfully Launch a Spacecraft to Mars (nytimes.com) 60
The United Arab Emirates has successfully launched a spacecraft towards an orbit around Mars, reports the New York Times. Built by a space physics lab at the University of Colorado, the Hope Mars probe was tested in Dubai, before being shipped to Japan's Tanegashima Island, where it was launched by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The launch is being streamed on the web and on YouTube.
It will join a fleet of six other spacecrafts studying the red planet from space, three operated by NASA, two by the European Space Agency (one shared with Russia) and one by India. Each contains different instruments to help further research of the Martian atmosphere and surface.
The Hope orbiter is carrying three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and a camera. From its high orbit — varying from 12,400 miles to 27,000 miles above the surface — the spacecraft will give planetary scientists their first global view of Martian weather at all times of day. Over its two-year mission, it will investigate how dust storms and other weather phenomena near the Martian surface have either speed or slow the loss of the planet's atmosphere into space.
"You'll be hearing a lot about Mars this summer," the Times adds. "Three missions are launching toward the red planet, taking advantage of the way Earth and its neighbor get closer every 26 months or so, allowing a relatively short trip between the two worlds." The next expected launch will be China's Tianwen-1, which could occur between later this week through early August... On July 30, NASA is scheduled to launch Perseverance, a robotic rover that will be the fifth wheeled American vehicle to explore Mars... A fourth mission, the joint Russian-European Rosalind Franklin rover, was to launch this summer, too. But technical hurdles, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, could not be overcome in time to meet the launch window. It is now scheduled to launch in 2022.
If the other three spacecraft all launch successfully, they should arrive at Mars early next year.
The Hope orbiter is carrying three instruments: an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and a camera. From its high orbit — varying from 12,400 miles to 27,000 miles above the surface — the spacecraft will give planetary scientists their first global view of Martian weather at all times of day. Over its two-year mission, it will investigate how dust storms and other weather phenomena near the Martian surface have either speed or slow the loss of the planet's atmosphere into space.
"You'll be hearing a lot about Mars this summer," the Times adds. "Three missions are launching toward the red planet, taking advantage of the way Earth and its neighbor get closer every 26 months or so, allowing a relatively short trip between the two worlds." The next expected launch will be China's Tianwen-1, which could occur between later this week through early August... On July 30, NASA is scheduled to launch Perseverance, a robotic rover that will be the fifth wheeled American vehicle to explore Mars... A fourth mission, the joint Russian-European Rosalind Franklin rover, was to launch this summer, too. But technical hurdles, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, could not be overcome in time to meet the launch window. It is now scheduled to launch in 2022.
If the other three spacecraft all launch successfully, they should arrive at Mars early next year.
Side note (Score:5, Interesting)
For those in the northern hemisphere, Mars is visible in the early morning hours and late evening. And by early morning I mean 2 AM or so and late evening meaning 10 PM or thereabouts. It rises just before midnight and sets just after midnight the following day.
Also, again for those in the northern hemisphere, you have a perfect time to view Jupiter and up to four of its moons as well as Saturn. Go out about 9 PM and look toward the E/SE. That really bright star is Jupiter with Saturn trailing a short way to the left and down a bit.
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What I learned after observing the planets with a telescope for a while is that often the best view if before it gets TOO dark. If it's super dark, the brightness of planet is kinda like a cop's spotlight in your face - it males it hard to see any details.
Of course without a scope (or least good binoculars) all you see is dots of light of different colors and brightness.
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Of course without a scope (or least good binoculars) all you see is dots of light of different colors and brightness.
That's all I see with my binocular (7X35). A bright blob where Jupiter is and teeny dots of light to the right and left for the moons. What is interesting is to look at it night after night and see the moons change position.
I was wondering about the moons (Score:2)
I was wondering if the moona would be visible with binoculars.
I bought a decent reflector scope because my four year old daughter was REALLY into studying the solar system. She was especially interested in the minor planets and Kuiper belt objects, but enjoys the big planets.
I was surprised how far Jupiter's moons are from the planet.
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I was surprised how far Jupiter's moons are from the planet.
Agreed. It's not something which is usually brought up when talking about the planet and its satellites. It's usually, "The four biggest moons of Jupiter are . . . ." When you see those points of light and realize a) how far away Jupiter is, b) that those moons are all bigger than the Earth's moon, and c) that you can even see them at this distance, it makes the mind wobble (thank you Kelly Bundy).
As a side note (to the side note), I took my par
Re: I was wondering about the moons (Score:2)
When I saw it yesterday it was right above a star (same declination, slightly higher azimuth) . Half an hour later it already had clearly moved west / to the left. If you can observe an object moving at that distance, it must be traveling 'quite fast'.
And that's only in our tiny solar system. From the scale of the universe to all complexity at molecular level there really is a lot (bit of understated understatement) to what to be amazed about.
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Re: I was wondering about the moons (Score:1)
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Lol!
She actually knew more about the solar system than I did when she was five. (She recently turned six). I wasn't that into astronomy; I'm really into supporting my kid's intellectual interests. She's the kid who scores 99th percentile (highest possible) on the standardized tests, who is a bit bored at school because she already knows the stuff - despite the fact that she goes to special advanced school.
In kindergarten, while her best friend played Pokemon the way she'd relax was doing second and third g
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At least you got paid while getting stoned and flipping burgers. Generally, you have to pay UNC to get stoned there. Also no guarantee the weed is either better or cheaper at your workplace compared to a college campus.
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https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-july-17-25-2/ [skyandtelescope.org]
Title (Score:3)
Watch The Launch of a Spacecraft to Mars Paid by The United Arab Emirates .
Fixed That For You.
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Watch The Launch of a Spacecraft to Mars Paid by The United Arab Emirates .
Fixed That For You.
Well, in fairness, at least it was "tested in Dubai", whatever that means
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It means it was tested by Indians. :)
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It means it was tested by Indians. :)
I for one welcome this American-Indian/Pakistani-Japanese collaboration, and thank the Emreratis for picking up the check.
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Probably not. The UAE has been making a huge push to transition from an oil based economy to a knowledge based on. They offer a world-class education and have been making sure they have plenty of talent coming up.
In fact one of the main goals here was to develop knowledge in aerospace by collaborating on design and doing the testing themselves.
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Death to America!
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Was going to say, it sounds like a joint US/Japanese project that was just funded by the UAE, possibly by the royal family in order to boost their own image, as they commonly do.
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Seems like a stupid way to boost a national image. The UAE is not subsidizing its own rocket industry; just renting out Japan's, and it probably ends up paying the ESA or US for its "mission control". Unless the UAE is looking to develop its space science/engineering departments at its local university, its not even going to profit from information that probe will be gathering around Mars.
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Perhaps you want to read the article.
The probe is 100% UAe project, build by 400 scientists, from which about 40% are women:
*. assembled in the USA
*. launched by Japan
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If you care who is first to anything, and if they were a man, woman, child, you're a cunt.
Achievements are made, congratulations are in order, we all move on.
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But as an American I like to feel that "we" were first to the moon.
And to those pioneering American space engineers we say "danke schon".
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But there aren't any Jews on Mars (Score:1, Flamebait)
Why is this comment so slow?
It's a good 1- 5 second delay
Don't even remember what I'm commenting against, the delay is so long.
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When you think about it (Score:2)
It makes sense. Plenty of dust storms and sand on Mars, as well as many opportunities to drill for resources. Those Arabs are smart.
Launch broadcast not that impressive (Score:5, Informative)
I think its clear at this point that SpaceX by far does the best launch broadcasts. ULA's broadcasts are decent (the part in the ULA broadcasts where they have each person call out "go" in succession will never fail to send shivers down my spine.). This was one of the weaker ones. They didn't even do a countdown, and the lack of any cameras on the rocket itself meant that all one was looking at after launch was very quickly a tiny dot. I know that I'm not the customer, but the UAE seemed to want to do this mission in part to get people back home more excited about science and in part to get more international prestige. Certainly they were trying pretty hard at that, to the point where they really downplayed the Japanese element in the broadcast itself; no visuals of the Japanese mission control and one heard only snippets of the Japanese call-outs. If this is part of a general goal to get more publicity and prestige they definitely could have done a better job.
All of that said, I'm pretty happy about this. The mission is a neat one. They are going to hopefully get interesting astronomical data. And it really does show how international cooperation can be productive for humanity as a whole. We need more like this. I'm optimistic that as companies like SpaceX and RocketLab further reduce rocket costs, we'll see more and more countries able to take part in part of the great exploration of space. For now at least, UAE, welcome to the final frontier.
The UAE barely did anything. (Score:1)
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It hasn't arrived at Mars yet. It remains to be seen whether there's going to be any achievements worth bragging about.
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At least the sheikhs finally put some money into something other than another place with golden toilets and with parking for 20 custom Lamborghinis.
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That's how things work in the real world. The poor people always get to go the shitty jobs.
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Video feed from the rocket itself? (Score:2)
Anyone know if there's some video from inside... looking out during the launch so we can put the kibosh on all these flat earther idiots?
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There's plenty of videos like that out there. Even amateur balloons and rockets can show the curvature of the earth. Flat Earther's are not going to be convinced by yet another video. They are fun to hate on, but there aren't enough to be worth anyone's attention.
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Flat earthers need not to be convinced about anything.
After all they know that Mars is flat, too.
More like they paid other people to do it (Score:2)
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Exciting news! (Score:1)
hmm (Score:3)
Google maps (Score:1)
Comms home? (Score:2)
I wonder which country's deep space network they're going to use to communicate with the craft
Nobody is talking about the PAR launch? (Score:2)
"The Brits say they lost it. And later tried to claim it was stolen. But we believe they are simply trying to get out of their loan agreement."
Apparent PAR was contracted by Skopos Financial to retrieve the unit after it was clear that judicial means to compel the country was not going to work because of the lack of jurisdiction on Mars.
"We're just doing our