Sheikh Mohammed tweets first picture of Mars taken by Hope Probe

The first ever image of Mars captured by the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe has been shared on Twitter by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The image of the red planet was captured 25,000 kilometres above its surface.

من ارتفاع ٢٥ ألف كم عن سطح الكوكب الأحمر .. أول صورة للمريخ بأول مسبار عربي في التاريخ

The first picture of Mars captured by the first-ever Arab probe in history, 25,000 km above the Red Planet’s surface pic.twitter.com/Qgh2Cn3JPF

— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 14, 2021

Meanwhile, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, defined the transmission of the debut image of Mars as a ‘defining moment’.”

The transmission of the Hope Probe’s first image of Mars is a defining moment in our history and marks the UAE joining advanced nations involved in space exploration. We hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about Mars which will benefit humanity. pic.twitter.com/TCM5yHTapH

— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) February 14, 2021

The UAE Hope Probe achieved its most critical task – insertion into the Mars orbit – on the evening of February 9, making the country the fifth to ever reach the red planet.

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

The probe will explore the climatic dynamics of the red planet on a daily and seasonal timescale for a full Martian year (687 earth days). It will gather and send back 1,000GB of new Mars data to the Science Data Centre in the UAE via different ground stations worldwide.

The data will be analysed and shared for free with the international Mars Science community.