Arab spacecraft enters orbit around Mars in historic flight

A craft from United Arab Emirates swung into orbit around Mars on Tuesday in a triumph for Arab world's first interplanetary mission. Ground controllers at UAE's centre in Dubai rose to ir feet and applauded when word came that unmanned craft, called Amal, Arabic for Hope, h reached end of its nearly seven-month, 300-million-mile journey and h begun circling red planet, where it will gar detailed data on Mars' atmosphere.

orbiter fired its main engines for 27 minutes in an intricate, high-stakes maeuvre that slowed craft eugh for it to be captured by Mars' gravity. It n took a nail-biting 15 minutes or so for signal confirming success to reach Earth. Tensions were high: Over years, Mars has been graveyard for a multitude of missions from various countries.

To a standing ovation, a visibly relieved Omran Sharaf, mission's director, declared, "To people of UAE and Arab and Islamic nations, we anunce success of UAE reaching Mars." Two more unmanned craft from US and China are following close behind, set to arrive at Mars over next several days. All three missions were launched in July to take vant of close alignment of Earth and Mars.

Amal's arrival puts UAE in a league of just five ncies in history that have pulled off a functioning Mars mission. As country's first venture beyond Earth's orbit, flight is a point of intense pride for oil-rich nation as it seeks a future in . An ebullient Mohammed bin Zayed, UAE's day-to-day ruler, was on hand at mission control and said: "Congratulations to leership and people of UAE for indescribable joy of arrival at Mars."

About 60 per cent of all Mars missions have ended in failure, crashing, burning up or orwise falling short in a testament to complexity of interplanetary travel and difficulty of making a descent through Mars' thin atmosphere. A combination of orbiter and lander from China is scheduled to reach planet on Wednesday. It will circle Mars until rover separates and attempts to land on surface in May to look for signs of ancient life.

A rover from US named Perseverance is set to join crowd next week, aiming for a landing February 18. It will be first leg in a dece-long US-European project to bring Mars rocks back to Earth to be examined for evidence planet once harboured microscopic life. If it pulls this off, China will become only second country to land successfully on Mars. US has done it eight times, first almost 45 years ago. A NASA rover and lander are still working on surface.

For UAE, it was country's first venture beyond Earth's orbit. For months, craft's journey h been tracked by state-run press with rapturous enthusiasm. Landmarks across UAE, including Burj Khalifa, tallest tower on Earth, have glowed red to mark Amal's anticipated arrival. Billboards depicting Amal tower over Dubai's highways. This year is 50th anniversary of country's founding, casting even more attention on Amal.

celestial wear station settled into an exceptionally high Martian orbit of 22,000 kilometres by 44,000 kilometres. It joins six craft alrey operating around Mars: three US, two European and one Indian. Amal h to perform a series of turns and engine firings to maeuvre into orbit and achieve what has eluded so many before. "Anything that slightly goes wrong and you lose craft," said Sarah al-Amiri, minister of state for vanced techlogy and chair of UAE's ncy.

success represents a tremendous boost to UAE's ambitions. country's first astronaut rocketed into in 2019, hitching a ride to International Station with Russians. That's 58 years after Soviet Union and U.S. launched astronauts. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's science mission chief, tweeted congratulations, saying: "Your bold endeavour to explore Red Planet will inspire many ors to reach for stars. We hope to join you at Mars soon" with Persevere.

In developing Amal, UAE chose to collaborate with more experienced partners inste of going it alone or buying craft elsewhere. Its engineers and scientists worked with researchers at University of Coloro, University of California at Berkeley and Arizona State University. craft was assembled at Boulder, Coloro, before being sent to Japan for launch last July.

car-size Amal cost USD 200 million to build and launch; that excludes operating costs at Mars. Chinese and US expeditions are considerably more complicated and expensive because of ir rovers. NASA's Perseverance mission totals USD 3 billion. UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, is looking for Amal to ignite imaginations of country's scientists and its youth and help prepare for a future when oil runs out. "This mission was never about just reaching Mars," said Omran Sharaf, Amal's project manr. "Mars is just a means for a much bigger objective." 

(Im Credits: AP)