Tag Archives: UAE

Missions to Mars

Mars, the planet most likely to stir the blood of an SF fan!

And it’s a real busy place. Three nations took advantage of the close orbit of Mars in 2020 to send missions to the Red Planet. NASA’s mission to look for signs of life is already underway. https://www.nasa.gov

The press is covering the Perseverance mission, almost to the exclusion of the other two which are equally interesting.

The Chinese Satellite is in parking orbit today. It has a lovely name taken from the title of an ancient poem: Tianwen, which means Quest for Heavenly Truth. It will also be looking for water and signs of life.  https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/china-s-mars-craft-enters-parking-orbit-before-landing-rover-1.5321743

The United Arab Emirates has a satellite in orbit since the ninth of February. It’s called Hope, and will be focussed on learning more about the atmosphere, and possibly understanding how the climate changed.

It’s amazing that all three launched in 2020 have succeeded, so far. There have been more failures than successes over the years.

Adding to the drama, there are probably 8 derelict satellites in orbit also, and their exact positions are not known.