{"id":44664,"date":"2021-02-19T22:22:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T22:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44664"},"modified":"2021-02-19T22:22:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T22:22:31","slug":"new-lebanese-prosecutor-to-lead-probe-into-beirut-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44664","title":{"rendered":"New Lebanese prosecutor to lead probe into Beirut blast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nDUBAI: After the last of three spacecrafts made contact with Mars this month, the world\u2019s newest space-faring nation is heralding a new age of \u201cspace collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe United Arab Emirates made history Feb. 9 when it became the fifth country to successfully enter the Martian orbit with its Hope probe, the first interplanetary mission by an Arab nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nScenes on the ground in Dubai were jubilant when Omran Sharaf, project manager of the Emirates Mars Mission, announced the orbit insertion was successful. Pictures of the team\u2019s engineers were then projected onto the side of the Burj Khalifa, the world\u2019s tallest tower.<\/p>\n

\nIt was an incredible feat considering the UAE Space Agency is less than seven years old and the average age of an Emirates Mars Mission team member is just 27.<\/p>\n

\nIt comes at a time of heightened interest in the Red Planet. China\u2019s Tianwen-1 spacecraft celebrated its own successful orbit insertion less than 24 hours later, on Feb. 10. NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on the surface of Mars on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nA week after the UAE\u2019s successful orbit insertion, Sharaf told Arab News that he is \u201cstill sleep-deprived.\u201d His team worked through the weekend to release its first image of the Red Planet five days after the Hope probe started its orbit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\nSharaf’s\u00a0team worked through the weekend to release its first image of the Red Planet five days after the Hope probe started its orbit. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\nSome of Mars\u2019s most defining features are visible in the picture, including the planet\u2019s north pole and Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat you see in this image is what you would see with your naked eye, if you were at a height of 25,000 kilometers above the Martian surface,\u201d Sharaf said.<\/p>\n

\nBut the best images of the planet are yet to come, he said, as this particular photo was taken with the probe\u2019s uncalibrated camera.<\/p>\n

\nSharaf said the team received the image 28 hours after orbit insertion and admitted he felt \u201crelieved\u201d when he saw it.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cLooking at it, as a person, it made me really appreciate the science that is going to be coming out of this mission,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving an image helps you know that you actually did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nBIOGRAPHY<\/span><\/h4>\n

\nOmran Sharaf Emirates Mars Mission (Hope Probe) Project Director Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre Omran is Project Director of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). He and his team are responsible for developing, launching, and operating the Hope Probe, the spacecraft of the mission. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\nOmran has worked on the project from its initial conception and developed all the necessary capabilities and partnerships at MBRSC, effectively transitioning the organization from one that focused on earth observation satellites to one that develops interplanetary exploration missions. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\nAn experienced electronics and systems engineer, who trained in the US and Korea, Omran was responsible for developing and implementing the Command Data Handling Subsystem (CDHS) for the DubaiSat-1 high resolution LEO imaging satellite. He also headed the development of the CDH subsystem and payload electronics subsystem for DubaiSat-2, along with being a systems engineer of that project. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\nPrior to EMM, Omran was Director of the Programs Management Department at MBRSC, which was responsible for defining new strategic programs, the project management office and the product and mission assurance functionalities of the center. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\nOmran earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia, USA, in 2005, and his Master’s in Science and Technology Policy from the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea, in 2013.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nSharaf said more pictures will be released soon as the first collection of data collected from the mission will be released to the global scientific community in September.<\/p>\n

\nAnd this is the sentiment he is most adamant about: The UAE will provide open access to all.<\/p>\n

\nSharaf said the hallmarks of the mission are \u201ctransparency\u201d and \u201cpeace,\u201d as well as looking to a post-oil future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMaybe superpowers around the world look at it differently than us,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, there are very clear priorities. Our economy is a priority. The reason why we are going into space is to build capacity, capability and a set of skills among the Emirati youth to serve our future.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAnd there are also certain national challenges linked to the environment that really require advanced technologies to be developed and customized for the UAE. To do that we need to have people with a certain set of skills and we need to have an industry with very high standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nCollaboration is also important. The UAE worked with three US universities on the mission, which launched from the Japanese island of Tanegashima on a rocket made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe do not look at it as a space race,\u201d Sharaf said. \u201cWe do not even use that terminology within our space community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe fundamental element to this was transparency. And this is how you actually ensure that other nations and people understand the main goals behind our mission. Basically, the UAE space program is a civilian program. It is a peaceful one. And this is what we want to emphasize.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDuring the mission\u2019s final approach to Mars, Sharaf\u2019s anxious face was beamed around the world on a live stream from mission control at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe UAE faced a 50 percent chance of successful orbit insertion and Sharaf did not sleep the night before.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI do not think I was worried, because I was stressed,\u201d he said. \u201cDid I accept the fact that this might not work? I did at that point. And so whatever the consequences were, for me, it was fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAt just after 8 p.m., Sharaf calmly announced the successful insertion to \u201cthe people of the United Arab Emirates, to Arab and Muslim nations\u201d and then repeated the phrase \u201cAll thanks to Allah\u201d three times.<\/p>\n

\nThe Hope team is now calibrating the probe\u2019s instruments and preparing for its transition from a capture orbit into a science orbit in six weeks\u2019 time. The science orbit is elliptical, ranging between 20,000 to 43,000 kilometers, with one complete orbit taking 55 hours. This will allow the probe to complete the first planet-wide picture of Mars\u2019 atmospheric dynamics and weather during both day and night.<\/p>\n

\nDuring the science orbit, the probe will study how energy moves through the Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis data will lead to new information that will serve humanity and will help us better understand what happened to the Red Planet,\u201d Sharaf said. \u201cIt will help us better understand our own climate and the changes that are happening around us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DUBAI: After the last of three spacecrafts made contact with Mars this month, the world\u2019s newest space-faring nation is heralding a new age of \u201cspace collaboration.\u201d The United Arab Emirates made history Feb. 9 when it became the fifth country to successfully enter the Martian orbit with its Hope probe, the first interplanetary mission by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}