UAE and US’ Mars missions to collaborate on science data analysis

Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) has announced a science data analysis collaboration initiative with NASA’s MAVEN Mars Mission. The partnership will pave the way towards greater scientific collaboration and data exchange between the two missions.

The collaboration enables the sharing and collaborative analysis of data and observations made by the EMM’s Hope Probe and NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) project and will enhance scientific returns from both spacecraft, which are currently orbiting Mars and observing the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

Omran Sharaf, project director of the Emirates Mars Mission, said: “Since the inception of EMM, the project has been defined by strong international collaborations and partnerships. The opportunity to work alongside other Mars missions and derive greater insights by sharing our observations and working together to fit together the pieces of the puzzle is one we are delighted to take.”

Sharaf added: “EMM science complements MAVEN and the Hope probe was designed to answer scientific objectives aligned directly with MEPAG (Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group) goals. Its observations were always designed to provide new insights that weren’t possible from past Mars missions. Now, by combining the two datasets from the EMM and MAVEN missions and analysing the results together, we can build a powerful response to many fundamental questions we have about Mars and the evolution and dynamics of its atmosphere.”

MAVEN completed its Mars orbit insertion in 2014. Its mission is to investigate the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars, offering an insight into how the planet’s climate has changed over time.

Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe, which entered Mars orbit on February 9, 2021, is studying the relationship between the upper layer and lower regions of the Martian atmosphere, giving the international science community full access to a holistic view of the planet’s atmosphere at different times of the day, through different seasons.

Read: UAE Hope Probe achieves historic milestone, successfully enters Mars orbit

“MAVEN and EMM are each exploring different aspects of the Martian atmosphere and upper-atmosphere system. Combined, we will have a much better understanding of the coupling between the two and the influence of the lower atmosphere on escape to space of gas from the upper atmosphere,” said Shannon Curry, research scientist in planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley and MAVEN principal investigator.

Following on from MAVEN and other previous missions, Hope set out to measure the global, diurnal and seasonal response of the Martian atmosphere to solar forcing; the atmospheric conditions relating to the rate of atmospheric escape – particularly of hydrogen and oxygen and the temporal and spatial behaviour of Mars’ exosphere. With early results showing exciting observations of Mars’ discrete aurora and additional bandwidth and resources available to encompass additional observations, further measurements of auroral phenomena have been brought into the mission’s goals, extending its capabilities beyond Hope’s planned goals.

Read: UAE’s Hope probe sends first global images of Mars’ discrete aurora

Read more: UAE’s Hope Probe captures observations about Mars atmosphere in third batch of data