The United Arab Emirates' first mission to Mars arrives at the red planet on Tuesday and will attempt a tricky maneuver to place it in orbit. The Emirates Mars Mission is known as the Hope Probe, and it is expected to arrive at Mars and send back a signal at 10:42 a.m. ET.
The UAE Space Agency will share live coverage of Hope's arrival on February 9 beginning at 9 a.m. ET on its website
When the spacecraft arrives, the Hope Probe will mark the UAE as only the fifth country in history to reach the red planet. The ambitions of the mission don't stop there.
The probe, along with its three scientific instruments, is expected to create the first complete portrait of the Martian atmosphere. The instruments will collect different data points on the atmosphere to also gauge seasonal and daily changes.
This information will provide scientists with an idea of what climate dynamics and weather are like in different layers of the Martian atmosphere. Together, this will shed light on how energy and particles, like oxygen and hydrogen, move through the atmosphere and how they even escape Mars.
The mission was one of three that launched to Mars from Earth in July, including NASA's Perseverance rover and China's Tianwen-1 mission. Hope will orbit the planet, Tianwen-1 will orbit the planet and land on it, and Perseverance will land on Mars.
All three missions launched around the same time due to an alignment between Mars and the Earth on the same side of the sun, making for a more efficient journey to Mars. Hope is the first of those missions to arrive at Mars; Tianwen-1 is expected to arrive on February 10 and Perseverance on February 18 writes CNN.
