EGU21-1906
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1906
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) 2020 Overview and Status

Omran Sharaf1, Sarah Amiri1, Hessa Almatroushi1, Adnan AlRais1, Mohammad Wali1, Zakareyya AlShamsi1, Nour AlTeneiji1, Michael McGrath2, Pete Withnell2, David Brain2, Nicolas Ferrington2, Heather Reed2, Brett Landin2, Sean Ryan2, Brian Pramann2, Gregory Holsclaw2, Christopher Edwards3, Michael Wolff4, and the EMM Team*
Omran Sharaf et al.
  • 1Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), Dubai, UAE
  • 2Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
  • 3Northern Arizona University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Flagstaff, USA
  • 4Space Science Institute (SSI) in Boulder, USA
  • *A full list of authors appears at the end of the 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 an unmanned observatory called “Hope” into an elliptical orbit around Mars on July 20, 2020  carrying three scientific instruments to study the Martian atmosphere in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths. 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 one Martian year. This will provide scientists with valuable understanding of the changes to the Martian atmosphere today through the achievement of three scientific objectives:

  • Characterize the state of the Martian lower atmosphere on global scales and its geographic, diurnal and seasonal variability.
  • Correlate rates of thermal and photochemical atmospheric escape with conditions in the collisional Martian atmosphere.
  • 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 review the status of the mission up to and beyond a successful Mars Orbit Insertion on Feb 9, 2021, including activities from Mars orbit in preparation for the start of mission science in May 2021.

EMM Team:

Mariam AlShamsi, Eman AlTeneiji, Fatma Lootah, Khalid Badri, Hoor AlMazmi, Maryam Yousuf, Noora AlMehairi, Justin Deighan, Michael Chaffin, Francois Forget, Robert Lillis, Michael Smith, Matthew Fillingim, Philip Christensen, Mikki Osterloo, Andrew Jones, Scott England, Sonal Jain, Bruce Jakosky, Janet Luhmann

How to cite: Sharaf, O., Amiri, S., Almatroushi, H., AlRais, A., Wali, M., AlShamsi, Z., AlTeneiji, N., McGrath, M., Withnell, P., Brain, D., Ferrington, N., Reed, H., Landin, B., Ryan, S., Pramann, B., Holsclaw, G., Edwards, C., and Wolff, M. and the EMM Team: Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) 2020 Overview and Status, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-1906, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1906, 2021.

Corresponding displays formerly uploaded have been withdrawn.