Hope Probe hits 100 million km mark, expected to arrive February 2021
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum shared two images from the Hope Probe’s star-tracking camera and tweeted, “The Hope Probe is officially 100 million km into its journey to the Red Planet. Mars, as demonstrated in the image captured by the Probe’s Star Tracker, is ahead of us, leaving Saturn and Jupiter behind. The Hope Probe is expected to arrive to Mars in February 2021.”
The Hope Probe has so far travelled 20 per cent of its 493-million-kilometre journey to the Red Planet since its successful lift-off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on July 20, 2020.
The 100-million-km milestone comes after the probe’s successful completion of its first trajectory correction manoeuvre TCMs that marked the firing of its six Delta-V thrusters. The probe will perform a number of further trajectory control manoeuvres, to reach its scheduled Mars Orbit Insertion, MOI, less than 170 days on February 2021, coinciding with the UAE’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
