The Emirates Mars Mission launched on July 19, 2020 and the $200 million Hope mission will arrive in Mars orbit in early 2021, then study the Red Planet from above for at least one Mars year (a little less than two Earth years). To finish the project in just six years, the United Arab Emirates partnered with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder to assemble and test the spacecraft in facilities on campus. Teams from both countries worked side-by-side to make it a reality here in Colorado and in the UAE.
Check out the conversation with Chancellor Phil DiStefano and Professor Allison Anderson, PhD, about what CU Boulder is doing to help us get there.
The mission will provide a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of the Martian atmosphere, team members have said. Key to that goal is Hope's unique equator-circling orbit, which will give the probe a new perspective of the Red Planet's thin, carbon dioxide-dominated air.
