P036-01
Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) 2020 Overview and Status

Thursday, 10 December 2020: 05:30
Virtual
Omran Sharaf1, Sarah Amiri1, Suhail AlMheiri1, Adnan AlRais1, Mohammad Wali1, Zakareyya Al Shamsi1, Ibrahim Al Qasim1, Khuloud Al Harmoodi1, Nour Al Teneiji1, Hessa Rashid Almatroushi1, Mariam Rashid Alshamsi1, Eman Saeed Altunaiji1, Fatma Hussain Lootah1, Khalid Mohammad Badri1, Hoor AlMazmi2, Maryam Mohammed Yousuf1, Noora Saeed Al Mehairi1, Mike McGrath3, Pete Withnell3, Nicolas Ferrington3, Heather Reed3, Brett Landin3, Sean Ryan3, Brian Pramann3, David Brain3, Justin Deighan4, Michael Chaffin4, Christopher S Edwards5, Noora AlRafi1, Francois Forget6, Robert J Lillis7, Michael D Smith8 and Michael J Wolff9, (1)Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, (2)UAE Space Agency, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, (3)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, United States, (4)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (6)Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique UPMC, Paris, France, (7)Space Sciences Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States, (8)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (9)Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) first mission to Mars and is the first Arab mission to another planet. It launched, on July 20, 2020, an unmanned observatory called “Hope” into an elliptical orbit around Mars carrying three scientific instruments to study the Martian atmosphere in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared bands. EMM will be the first mission to provide the first truly global picture of the Martian atmosphere revealing important information about how atmospheric processes drive diurnal variations for a period of an entire Martian year. This will provide scientists with valuable understanding of the changes to the Martian atmosphere today through the achievement of three scientific objectives:

  1. Characterize the state of the Martian lower atmosphere on global scales and its geographic, diurnal and seasonal variability.
  2. Correlate rates of thermal and photochemical atmospheric escape with conditions in the collisional Martian atmosphere.
  3. Characterize the spatial structure and variability of key constituents in the Martian exosphere.

The mission is led by Emiratis from Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and is expanding the nation’s human capital through knowledge transfer programs set with international partners from the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), Arizona State University (ASU) School of Earth and Space Exploration, and University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). The presentation will focus on the status of the mission and its launch, in addition to its science objectives, instruments, spacecraft, and ground segment.

Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>