UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The Hope Mars Mission, also known as Emirates Mars Mission, will be the first mission to Mars by any Arab nation if it successfully launches in 2020.<br /><br />The uncrewed probe has been named "Hope" or Al-Amal in Arabic to send out a message of optimism to Arabs around the world.<br /><br />The Hope probe will be hexagonal in shape and structure with a mass of about 1,500 kilograms and 2.37 meters in width and 2.90 meters in height, according to Khaleej Times.<br /><br />The spacecraft will also use three 600-watt solar panels to charge its batteries which will unfold once the probe is in orbit. <br /><br />It will also communicate with Earth via a high-gain antenna.<br /><br />Hope will be launched from Japan using Mitsubishi's H-IIA launcher and will take approximately 200 days to travel to Mars at speeds of up to 40,000 km per hour.<br /><br />The spacecraft will carry a digital camera, an infrared spectrometer and a ultraviolet spectrometer to gather climate and atmospheric data of Mars and send the images back to Earth.<br /><br />If everything goes according to plan, the probe will arrive in Mars in 2021 and is expected study the atmosphere of Mars for about two years.
