You’d be forgiven for letting it slip your mind, but last July three spacecraft launched to Mars. Now, after a journey of seven months, they’re all about to arrive.
So, what are they?
The missions are from three different countries – the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), China, and the U.S. – and they all launched within a few weeks of each other.
Launches to Mars are best attempted every 26 months, when our two planets align in their orbits for the shortest trip, which is why they launched at the same time.
The first of the three to arrive is going to be the U.A.E.’s Hope spacecraft, which launched on July 19 and should enter orbit around the Red Planet tomorrow, Tuesday, February 9.
Hope is the first interplanetary spacecraft ever launched by the Arab world, obviously making it the first Arabian mission to Mars too.
Weighing in at 1,350 kilograms and with a cost of $200 million, the spacecraft will be situated between 20,000 and 43,000 kilometers above the surface of Mars, completing an orbit once every 55 hours.
Hope is the first Arabian mission to Mars.
AFP via Getty Images
The spacecraft will be inclined 25 degrees to the Martian equator, allowing it to observe most of the planet as it rotates underneath.
It has three instruments on board, designed to measure the Martian atmosphere and its weather, look for dust storms and ice clouds, and even monitor the seasons on Mars.
Of course, it also has a camera on board, and will be returning some no doubt stunning images of the Red Planet back to Earth over the course of its two-year mission.
This could be extended to four years, however, if the spacecraft remains healthy.
Hope’s mission will last at least two Earth years.
Following right on its footsteps will be China’s Tianwen-1 mission, which launched on July 23 and is set to enter orbit around Mars on Wednesday, February 10.
Like the UAE, this is China’s first mission to Mars – although it has performed numerous Earth orbit and lunar missions, including a recent return of Moon samples to Earth.
The mission comprises an orbiter weighing about 3,000 kilogrgams and a rover weighing in at 240 kilograms.
The latter is scheduled to touch down on the Martian surface in May, using a similar architecture to the Chang’e series of Moon landers.
If successful, China will become only the third nation to land on Mars after the U.S. and the Soviet Union – although the latter’s Mars 3 lander lasted just a few seconds in 1971.
The nature of the landing however – entering orbit before touching down on the surface – is different from previous landings, which flew direct to the surface.
Tianwen-1 is China’s first attempt at reaching Mars.
Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Tianwen-1’s rover will touch down in a region of Mars called Utopia Planitia. The landing platform will touch down, before the rover then descends to the surface from a deployed ramp.
The mission is expected to last 90 Martian days (known as sols, roughly 93 Earth days), but could be extended beyond that.
Using solar power, and equipped with six instruments and two cameras, the rover will trundle across the surface, returning images and data to Earth.
Some of its science goals include looking for water-ice underground, although a lot of its other planned activities remain unknown for now.
Tianwen-1 is expected to touch down in May 2021.
CNSA
Then, on February 18, it’s the big one. NASA’s $2.7 billion Perseverance rover, having launched from Earth on July 30, is scheduled to touch down in Jezero Crater on Mars.
Perseverance, weighing in at 1,025 kilograms, is aesthetically identical to its predecessor Curiosity, which touched down on Mars in August 2012. This time around, however, it has more ambitious science goals.
While Curiosity looked for evidence that Mars was once habitable – confirming that was the case – Perseverance will be actively looking for past life on Mars.
Jezero Crater, which it will explore for two years, is home to what was once a river delta and lake billions of years ago, a possible prime location for life to arise.
Perseverance will use instruments to study Martian rocks, and look for signs of organics or even microfossils of microbial life hidden within.
Excitingly, it will store some samples on the surface in small cigar-sized caches, which will be picked up by a “fetch” mission from Europe and the U.S. later this decade.
Perseverance will touch down with a “sky crane” landing system.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The rover has plenty of other tools up its sleeves, too. It will take images and even videos of the surface for one, including stunning vistas of Jezero Crater.
It will also practice turning carbon dioxide from the Martian air into oxygen, a potentially useful tool for future human missions to Mars.
Like Tianwen-1, it will look under the Martian surface for water-ice using a ground-penetrating radar, and it will also monitor the Martian weather.
And that’s not all. Within the first 50 days or so of the mission, it will deploy a helicopter on the surface of Mars called Ingenuity.
While only a technical demonstration, this will be the first-ever attempt at flight on the surface of another planet.
If successful, similar technology could also be used on future human missions to Mars.
Ingenuity will fly in the Martian air for several minutes at time.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
So, there’s plenty to be excited about as these Mars missions begin to arrive.
First with Hope, and then Tianwen-1 and ultimately Perseverance, the Red Planet is suddenly about to get a lot busier with human visitors.
Presuming they all arrive as planned, we should be in for years of exciting images and data back from Mars – and perhaps, even, tantalizing evidence for life itself.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
