NASA’s Mars Rover ‘says hi’ to UAE’s Hope Probe

Washington: NASA’s Mars Rover called Perseverance has sent a cheerful message to UAE’s Hope Probe, which was successfully launched, a couple of days before. The message congratulated the Hope Probe on its successful launch.

“Congratulations on your launch!” Nasa wrote on Twitter. “I wish you a successful journey and look forward to the sol [Martian day] when we are both exploring Mars.”

Meanwhile, the UAE Mars Mission, the team on charge of the Hope Probe welcomed the message and replied. “Thank you. The launch was really exciting. I wish you all the best for your big day. See you soon!”, UAE Mars Mission Tweeted.

Details of Perseverance Probe

NASA scheduled the launch of Perseverance on July 17^th, almost the exact date at which Hope Probe’s initial launch was scheduled. But Perseverance had to delay the launch three times due to technical problems while Hope Probe deferred it twice due to a bad weather at the launch site, which was Tanegashima island in Japan. The engineers are working hard to get a launch date before the middle of August from the Cape Canaveral in Florida. If the launch does not perform before this date, the US scientists will have to wait until 2022, for it is the next available time when the earth and the Mars get aligned.

If NASA’s Mars Rover launch is successful, the Perseverance might touch the surface of the Red planet in February 2021 and would start the search for microbial life on it, if ever existed. Meanwhile, the Hop Probe’s majority operations are on the orbit of Mars, to study the climatic changes on the planet and it will be only at the end of its mission, Hope Probe touches the Mars surface.

The Perseverance Rover is USA’s first mission for the search of microbe-life on the planet after the successful operations by Viking 1 and 2, the twin expeditions to Mars launched in 1975. The two landers successfully reached Mars and were the first to send home images of the surface of the Red Planet. Viking 1 and 2 operated far beyond their 90-day lifetimes, to 1980 and 1982 respectively, offering scientists an unrivalled insight into Mars.

NASA’s Viking 1 and 2

Besides taking photographs and collecting other science data on the Martian surface, the two landers conducted three biology experiments designed to look for possible signs of life. These experiments discovered unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the Martian soil, but provided no clear evidence for the presence of living microorganisms in soil near the landing sites. According to scientists, Mars is self-sterilizing. They believe the combination of solar ultraviolet radiation that saturates the surface, the extreme dryness of the soil and the oxidizing nature of the soil chemistry prevent the formation of living organisms in the Martian soil.

China’s probe to Mars

Needless to say, the competition to touch Mars is toughened when China has planned its mission to Mars, this month. The Tianwen vehicle, as they named it, would orbit, land and rove on Mars with a large range of instruments on board to measure the Martian minerals and particles. Tianwen would land at Utopia Planitia – the same spot where Viking 2 touched the heart of Mars.