China's Mars probe has neared Mars orbit today, US's 'Perseverance' to reach in a week

KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 11

United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s Hope became the first among the three Mars missions scheduled for February, others being China's Tianwen 1 Probe and United States' Perseverance Probe, to reach the orbit of Mars.

Related Articles

FILE - This June 1, 2020 illustration provided by Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre depicts the United Arab Emirates' Hope Mars probe. Photo: AP

Arab spacecraft closes in on Mars on historic flight

This undated image shows the hoarding board of National Human Rights Commission at the entrance gate. Photo courtesy: NHRC

NHRC to monitor probe into Baitadi rape, murder

A screenshot of the live cast of the journey of Hope Probe. Photo Courtesy: Emirates Mars Mission
A screenshot of the live cast of the journey of Hope Probe. Photo Courtesy: Emirates Mars Mission

The first picture in black-and-white of Mars taken by Tianwen 1. Photo: China National Space Administration
The first picture in black-and-white of Mars taken by Tianwen 1. Photo: China National Space Administration

NASA's Perseverance Rover for the Mars 2020 mission. Photo Courtesy: NASA
NASA's Perseverance Rover for the Mars 2020 mission. Photo Courtesy: NASA

UAE's Hope probe was launched on July 20, 2020 from Tanegashima Space Centre, Japan and entered Mars's orbit on Tuesday, February 09, a day before China's Tianwen-1's entry and a week before Perseverance.

The twitter handle Hope Mars Mission shared a brief on the Mars mission earlier this afternoon.

Hope Probe aims to understand climate dynamics and the global weather map by characterising the lower atmosphere of Mars, explain how the weather changes the escape of Hydrogen and Oxygen, and also understand the structure and variability of Hydrogen and Oxygen in the upper atmosphere and identifying the reasons behind why Mars is losing them into space.

Meanwhile. Tianwen-1 is nearing Mars, according to China National Space Administration (CNSA). The probe conducted its fourth orbital correction on Friday evening and is preparing for its arrival in Mars orbit around February 10.

CNSA released the first black-and-white picture of Mars taken by Tianwen-1 on February 05 when the probe was about 2.2 million kilometers from the red planet.

According to the press release issued by CNSA on February 05, Tianwen-1 has flown for 197 days covering more than 465 million kilometers on its journey to the planet.

Tianwen 1, the country's first independent Mars mission, was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, kicking off the nation's planetary exploration program.

It primary goal is to soft-land a rover in May (will travel more than 470 million km before entering Martian orbit ) on the southern part of Mars' Utopia Planitia, the largest recognized impact basin in the solar system - to conduct scientific surveys.

Similarly, US's Perseverance launched on July 30, 2020, is scheduled to land on February 18, 2021 at Jezero Crater on Mars.

According to NASA, the primary objective of this rover is to seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for a possible return to Earth.