First, the maneuver of the transition to Martian orbit with a migratory trajectory performed the Arabic probe Hope ("Nadezhda" in Arabic, Al-Amal). The procedure lasted 27 minutes, and upon its completion, the device was under the dominant influence of Mars gravity. It will move the next two months to its working elliptic orbit with a height of 20-43 thousand kilometers above the surface of the planet. Now Hope is on a more elongated orbit - its minimum height is only a thousand kilometers, and the most remote point is more than 49 thousand kilometers from Mars.
On board the apparatus - three scientific tools to study the properties of the Martian atmosphere. As soon as the main mission program begins, for every nine days the probe will completely remove the entire red planet in different emission spectra (visible, infrared and ultraviolet). This will not only study in detail the features of the composition of the Mars gas shell, but also to track its dynamic changes.
The Hope probe was created in close cooperation of engineers and scientists from the UAE with American specialists in interplanetary missions. The assembly of the device was carried out in the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado in Boulder. What is interesting, on July 19 last year, they launched the "hope" into space from Japan on a two-stage H-IIA rocket.
The yield of the first national spacecraft in the orbit of Mars was widely covered in the UAE. On the entire surface of the cooicesal skyscraper "Burj-Khalifa" was projected by a bright red countdown until the start of the maneuver. The same screen was displayed the status of the probe during braking (with a 11-minute delay, obviously). Also, the Space.com portal writes, in the night sky above the desert images of two natural satellites of Mars - Phobos and Deimos appeared.
China is second
Less than a day, a similar maneuver made the Mission "Tianwean-1" (Tianwen-1). It consists immediately of three components - the landing platform, the marshode and the orbital module, which also serves as a migratory. Judging by such a set of devices, we can talk about the very serious ambitions of China regarding Mars. At a minimum, the Space Agency of the Middle Kingdom is going to perform three operations to the development of which other attempts left for several attempts: an exit to orbit (already successfully), a soft landing and recharging of the rover.
Since the composition of missions differs, their technical equipment will also differ. Three years of heavily (about five tons) "Tianwean-1" took only 15 minutes of work much more powerful than the Hope, the engine to slow down and be captured by the gravity of Mars. The result was a completely different orbit - high-elliptical 400x180000 kilometers with a period of 10 days. The coming months, the Chinese probe will also smoothly decline and mapping the surface of the planet.
The minimum height on which mission has to work is only 265 kilometers. By the end of the spring, experts from the control center will deter arm of the disembarkation and send the separation command to the machine. It is planned that the orbital module will last two years, and the rover will work 90 nights (Martian days). There are 13 scientific tools on the devices, of which seven will remain in space, and six will ride on the red planet.
China is not first trying to reach Mars: the previous attempt ended in failure at the very beginning of the flight back in 2011. The small apparatus "Iinho-1" (Yinghuo-1) was supposed to go on a passing payload on the Russian "Phobos-Grunt" mission. But due to the failure of the accelerated block, the migratory module did not leave the earth orbit. The following project for the study of the Red Planet Chinese specialists are fully implemented on their own, not counting on any help.
Source: Naked Science