The Emirates Mars Mission

Abstract

The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) was launched to Mars in the summer of 2020, and is the first interplanetary spacecraft mission undertaken by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The mission has multiple programmatic and scientific objectives, including the return of scientifically useful information about Mars. Three science instruments on the mission's Hope Probe will make global remote sensing measurements of the Martian atmosphere from a large low-inclination orbit that will advance our understanding of atmospheric variability on daily and seasonal timescales, as well as vertical atmospheric transport and escape. The mission was conceived and developed rapidly starting in 2014, and had aggressive schedule and cost constraints that drove the design and implementation of a new spacecraft bus. A team of Emirati and American engineers worked across two continents to complete a fully functional and tested spacecraft and bring it to the launchpad in the middle of a global pandemic. EMM is being operated from the UAE and the United States (U.S.), and will make its data freely available.

Keywords: Atmosphere; EMM; Hope; Mars.

Fig. 1

Cartoon of the size and inclination of Hope’s orbit relative to the orbit size of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, as well as several active Mars missions at the time of launch of EMM

Fig. 2

Traceability to EMM Investigations, measurements and instruments from Motivating Questions and EMM Science Objectives (upper half of figure) and from MEPAG Goals, Objectives and Investigations (lower half of figure)

Fig. 3

Traceability between EMM Science Investigations, the required physical parameters of the Mars climate system, the observable quantities necessary to determine those physical parameters, and finally the instruments that will measure the observables

Fig. 4

The EMIRS flight instrument

Fig. 5

EXI flight instrument

Fig. 6

EMUS flight instrument

Fig. 7

Diagram of an “orbit in the life” of EMM, with sample color-coded observation sequences, NOZ locations, and ground contact indicated as viewed from above Mars (top) and on an orbit timeline (bottom). The orbit start and stop location is at midnight LST, and yellow and gray shading indicate the sunlight and shadowed parts of Mars

Fig. 8

Mapping of the analyses for the EMM science objectives to the required EMM data, and other data, tools, and physical models

Fig. 9

Block diagram showing the relationship between the launch, space, and ground segments of EMM

Fig. 10

Mission timeline showing mission phases, various mission events such as planned maneuvers and eclipse and solar conjunction periods, as well as information such as available data download volume and Martian season

Fig. 11

Mission level EMM organizational structure. MBRSC contributions are indicated in blue and Knowledge Transfer Partner contributions in green

Fig. 12

EMM Science Team members and their roles, including Core Science Team member, Instrument Science Teams, Apprentices, and the Science Advisory Group

Fig. 13

EMM Hope Probe undergoing solar array testing

Fig. 14

EMM spacecraft without thermal blankets

Fig. 15

CAD drawing of EMM spacecraft showing the locations of important components, including the science instruments EXI, EMIRS, and EMUS

Fig. 16

Timeline showing EMM mission development phases (top) and the operational phase of the mission (bottom)

Fig. 17

EMM Assembly, Integration, and Test Timeline

Fig. 18

EMM spacecraft integration plan summary

Fig. 19

EMM spacecraft integration plan summary

Fig. 20

Preparation of the EMM observatory for thermal vacuum testing

Fig. 21

EMM observatory solar array deployment testing

Fig. 22

EMM Ground Segment Operations Data Flows

Fig. 23

A) Relationship of mission operations functions. B) Elements supporting flight operations