Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Mars


That's a REUTERS video report that notes the Hope Probe is the United Arab Emirates first mission to Mars; however, it's more than that. Natasha Turak (NBC NEWS) reports the Hope Probe is "making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission."  Turak also notes:

The UAE’s government has launched various campaigns to expand the country’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) sector, and it views its growing space program as an important part of that. It’s also the first country in the world to have a minister of A.I., and is investing heavily in its own indigenous defense industry.
Some 200 Emirati engineers and scientists spent six years working on the Arab world’s first spacecraft.
The first Mars mission was launched on October 10, 1960 by the Soviet Union and it was unsuccessful. Sixty years later, the UAE launches its first Mars mission.

NASA's land rover Curiosity is an ongoing mission that launched November 26, 2011. Curiosity Tweeted today:

A New Hope: One more robot is on the way to Mars! Best wishes the @HopeMarsMission on the successful launch today. Enjoy the cruise, and I'll see you soon.

WIKIPEDIA notes:


Curiosity is a car-sized rover designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL).[3] Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26th, 2011, at 15:02 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale on Mars on August 6th, 2012, 05:17 UTC.[7][8][13] The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 56 million km (35 million mi) journey.[9][14] The rover's goals include an investigation of the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life, including investigation of the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for human exploration.[15][16] In December 2012, Curiosity's two-year mission was extended indefinitely,[17] and on August 5th, 2017, NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Curiosity rover landing.[18][19] The rover is still operational, and as of July 20, 2020, Curiosity has been on the planet Mars for 2828 sols (2905 total days) since landing on August 6th, 2012. (See current status.) Curiosity's design serves as the basis for the planned Perseverance rover, which will carry different scientific instruments.

Perseverance is scheduled to launch July 30th. NASA notes:

NASA is targeting 7:50 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 30, for the launch of its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch window is approximately two hours, with a launch opportunity every five minutes.
Live launch coverage will begin at 7 a.m., on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
The mission – designed to better understand the geology and climate of Mars and seek signs of ancient life on the Red Planet – will use the robotic scientist, which weighs just under 2,300 pounds (1,043 kilograms) and is the size of a small car, to collect and store a set of rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth by future Mars sample return missions. It also will test new technologies to benefit future robotic and human exploration of Mars.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech in Southern California, built the Perseverance rover and will manage mission operations for NASA. The agency's Launch Services Program, based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.
Mars 2020 Perseverance is part of America’s larger Moon to Mars exploration approach that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis program.
Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, media participation in news conferences will be remote. Only a limited number of media, who already have been accredited, will be accommodated at Kennedy. For the protection of media and Kennedy employees, the Kennedy Press Site News Center facilities will remain closed to all media throughout these events.
The deadline for media to apply for accreditation for this launch has passed, but more information about media accreditation is available by contacting ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov.
To participate in the Kennedy briefings by phone, reporters must e-mail ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov no later than one hour prior to each event.
Questions also may be asked via social media with the hashtag #CountdownToMars.
Full mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):
Monday, July 27
1 p.m. – Mars 2020 Prelaunch News Conference. Participants include:
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
Omar Baez, launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program
Matt Wallace, deputy project manager, JPL
Tory Bruno, CEO, United Launch Alliance
Jessica Williams, launch weather officer, 45th Space Force
3 p.m. – Mars 2020 Mission Engineering/Science Briefing. Participants include:
Lori Glaze, NASA Planetary Science Division director
Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager, JPL
Farah Alibay, mobility engineer, JPL
Ken Farley, project scientist, Caltech
Tanja Bosak, science team member, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tuesday, July 28
2 p.m. – Mars 2020 Mars Sample Return Briefing. Participants include:
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
David Parker, director of human and robotic exploration, ESA (European Space Agency)
Jeff Gramling, NASA Mars Sample Return Program director
Julie Townsend, sampling and caching operations lead, JPL
Chris Herd, returned sample science participating scientist, University of Alberta
Lisa Pratt, NASA planetary protection officer
4 p.m. – Mars 2020 Mission Tech and Humans to Mars Briefing. Participants include:
Jeff Sheehy, chief engineer, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate
Jim Watzin, NASA Mars Exploration Program director
Michael Hecht, MOXIE principal investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mimi Aung, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter project manager, JPL
Amy Ross, lead spacesuit engineer NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Michelle Rucker, Mars Integration Group lead, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Wednesday, July 29
Noon – Administrator Briefing. Participants include:
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard
Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana
NASA astronaut Zena Cardman
No phone bridge will be available for this event. In-person media at Kennedy’s Press Site countdown clock may ask questions.
Thursday, July 30
7 a.m. – NASA TV live launch coverage begins
11:30 a.m. – Postlaunch News Conference
Audio only of the news conferences and launch coverage will be carried on the NASA “V” circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240, -1260 or -7135. On launch day, "mission audio," the launch conductor’s countdown activities without NASA TV launch commentary, will be carried on 321-867-7135.
On launch day, a “clean feed” of the launch without NASA TV commentary will be carried on the NASA TV media channel. Launch also will be available on local amateur VHF radio frequency 146.940 MHz and UHF radio frequency 444.925 MHz, heard within Brevard County on Florida’s Space Coast.
For more information, visit:
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
NASA’s Mars 2020 press kit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/mars_2020/launch/
-end-
Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov
Mary MacLaughlin / Kenna Pell
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-289-7960 / 321-501-0625
mary.maclaughlin@nasa.gov / kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov

Curiosity launched November 26, 2011 and landed on Mars August 6, 2012 -- nearly a year later. So it will be some time before the Hope Probe reaches Mars.

Due to the coronavirus, the people who operate Curiosity on earth now work from home. Of the mission, NASA notes:


By studying the chemical elements on Mars today — including carbon and oxygen — scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had the conditions necessary to support life.
Weaving this story, element by element, from roughly 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) away is a painstaking process. But scientists aren’t the type to be easily deterred. Orbiters and rovers at Mars have confirmed that the planet once had liquid water, thanks to clues that include dry riverbeds, ancient shorelines, and salty surface chemistry. Using NASA’s Curiosity Rover, scientists have found evidence for long-lived lakes. They’ve also dug up organic compounds, or life’s chemical building blocks. The combination of liquid water and organic compounds compels scientists to keep searching Mars for signs of past — or present — life.
Despite the tantalizing evidence found so far, scientists’ understanding of Martian history is still unfolding, with several major questions open for debate. For one, was the ancient Martian atmosphere thick enough to keep the planet warm, and thus wet, for the amount of time necessary to sprout and nurture life? And the organic compounds: are they signs of life — or of chemistry that happens when Martian rocks interact with water and sunlight? 

 When the Hope Probe reaches Mars, it may provide a wealth of information. 
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