Comments on: Why the UAE’s Hope Mars Orbiter is really a US mission for UAE’s students

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 20:28:20 +0000

Richard M,
Looking at the last articles Robert posted, it looks like the UAE are making connections to all the space programs. They flew an astronaut on a Russian Soyuz, they launched this probe from Japan, and they had US schools make the probe. Reminds me of the movie “Back to School” when Rodney Dangerfield’s character says “Why build? You can lease…”
You are right, outsourcing and not maintaining a huge launch infrastructure will save them money.

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 06:59:58 +0000

So university students designed and built the payload. On budget and time.

But Boeing can not copy the Atlas program. With a limitless budget and 15 years.

By: Richard M

Richard M — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 04:59:54 +0000

Hi Jay,

“JPL and the DSN will carrying the communications for the spacecraft.”

I was wondering that, too. Thanks for the digging.

So this is something else the UAE has outsourced. Still, as I say, they had to start somewhere. I’m curious to see how they go about the next mission they fund.

By: Richard M

Richard M — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 04:58:07 +0000

“The main question is whether this strategy will work for the UAE, in the long run.”

For a small country with no aerospace sector or space science community to speak of, this mission isn’t a bad place to start to helping build both. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the UAE leadership at least seems to be trying to address the hard reality that their petrodollars are not going to last a whole lot longer.

But as you say, the question is whether the next mission they attempt will done in house to a greater degree, and if so, will it be done successfully? I hope they can. If not, it’s still a net benefit, since key American university space science programs basically got another Discovery class science mission funded through the back door. Valuable experience, and valuable science, for all concerned.

Because if nothing else, the UAE is making all data from HOPE publicly available. That puts them up a leg over China’s program, which while it may be fully indigenous, is as transparent as a brick wall.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 21:05:49 +0000

I finally found an answer to my question: “How will they talk to it?” I wondered if the UAE were using their own site and JAXA’s site to talk to it, but I saw this today: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/hope-mission-to-mars/nasa-jpl-wishes-uae-hope-mars-probe-good-luck-as-they-connect-in-space—and-on-twitter.
JPL and the DSN will carrying the communications for the spacecraft.

By: Roland

Roland — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:02:56 +0000

In my “Grand Overview” of reality, including the successful launch and hopefully its Orbital insertion in February 2021, the collaboration between juxtaposing societies is a learning curve we must all learn to navigate. Everybody should get a chance to be the Cherry on top of the cake (so to speak). If it bitters, we bake a new one.