Context: Recently, United Arab Emirates first launch to Mars has been delayed two days by poor weather conditions at the Japan`s Tanegashima Space Center. 

• It is one of three missions launching to Mars this month. The USA and China, both have surface rovers in the late stages of preparation.

About Hope`s Mission

• The Emirates Mars Mission, or Hope is built by the United Arab Emirates. It is Arab region’s first foray into interplanetary space.
• It is a $200 million spacecraft. The mission will orbit Mars and study the dynamics of the martian atmosphere and its interaction with outer space and the solar wind.
• Hope is expected to spend about seven months traveling to Mars, arriving in early 2021. 
• The spacecraft will orbit over the Red Planet’s equator for a full Mars year (nearly two Earth years) studying the planet’s weather and atmosphere.

The primary scientific objectives are to 

• search for the connection between current martian weather and the ancient climate of Mars, 
• study the loss mechanisms of Mars’ atmosphere to space by tracking the behavior and escape of hydrogen and oxygen, 
• investigate how the lower and upper levels of the martian atmosphere are connected, and create a global picture of how the martian atmosphere varies throughout the day and year.
• The other Mars Mission which will be launched in the near future are China’s Tianwen-1 lander and NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.

Objective Behind Mars Exploration

• Despite being starkly different in many ways, the Red Planet has several Earth-like features– such as clouds, polar ice caps, volcanoes, and seasonal weather patterns.
• For ages, scientists have wondered whether Mars can support life. In the past few years, Mars missions have been able to discover the possible presence of liquid water on the planet, either in the subsurface today or at some point in its past.