“A feat achieved in 50 years of the founding”
Success in 6 years through cooperation with allies
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[아시아경제 이현우 기자] The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that its Mars probe has successfully entered Mars orbit, the first among Arab countries and the fifth in the world. It is being evaluated as a splendid achievement in six years by making the most of cooperation with the allies. The UAE expressed its appreciation to all countries, including Korea, the United States, and Japan, who assisted in the space technology and spacecraft construction and launch process, and announced that it plans to share the observation data around the world.
According to foreign media such as CNBC, the UAE’s Mars probe’Amal’ succeeded in entering Mars orbit at 12:57 am Korean time on the 10th. Until now, only four countries have been known to have successfully entered the Mars orbit: the United States, Russia, the European Union and India. On July 20, last year, Amal was launched on Mars by a Japanese-developed H2A rocket at Tanegashima Space Center in Kyushu, Japan. After 204 days of sailing, Amal successfully entered Mars orbit.
Amal’s entry into Mars orbit is regarded as a feat achieved not only by the UAE, but also by a rare emerging country in the space sector worldwide. According to CNBC, the scientific community predicted that Amal’s success rate of entering Mars orbit was around 50%. Omran Sharaf, head of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), who oversees the Amal development, launch, and operation project, said, “We have overcome many challenging situations and achieved a tremendous milestone of entering Mars orbit.” The UAE, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, is known for its festive atmosphere.
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The secret that the UAE, which has been preparing for Mars exploration since 2014, was able to successfully enter Mars orbit in a short period of six years, thanks to cooperation with allies, is dominated by Iranian evaluation. The UAE started entering the space development project in 2006 and learned basic satellite and space technologies from Korea at that time. In 2009 and 2013, it launched custom-made satellites in Korea, and in 2018, the United States and its allies joined the Artemis Project, a joint research project organized with the aim of exploring the Moon and Mars, and engaged in many cooperation.
The development of the Mars probe Amal could be built by the UAE in cooperation with the University of Colorado, the University of California, and Arizona State University. The launch of the rocket was possible with the cooperation of both the launch vehicle and the launch site. “Collaboration is very important in space development,” said Mr. Omran, who said, “We cooperated with Korea to transfer knowledge, and collaborated with the University of Colorado in the US to transfer technology and succeed in the project within a short period of time.”
The UAE is planning to share Amal’s observation data around the world from September as early as possible, and it is known that the analysis results of the data will be released in early December.
Reporter Lee Hyun-woo [email protected]
