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A team of engineers from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), along with university students who are part of a space science research programme affiliated with the centre, participated in the meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2019.
The meeting is the largest annual international gathering related to Earth and space sciences.
The research projects discussed by the centre at the conference were presented by researcher Hessa Al Matrooshi, Leader of the Team responsible for the Management and Analysis of Scientific Data at the Hope Probe Project, Eng. Khaled Badri, Engineer of Scientific Devices at the Centre, and Ahmed Al Hantoubi, Third Year Student at Khalifa University.
Al Matrooshi stated that the centre’s participation in the AGU 2019 reflects the regional and international success of the UAE’s national space sector, as well as the centre’s space research capacities.
She added that the scientific research presented at the AGU 2019 aims to produce an accurate visualisation of an important type of oxygen radiation present in the atmosphere of Mars, affirming that this research will contribute positively to the Hope Probe project.
“As a result of this scientific research, we can analyse scientific data obtained from the Emirates Mars Mission, or the Hope Probe, through the spectrophotometer tool, EMUS,” she said.
She also explained that the images that EMUS will capture have been simulated while considering engineering observational factors, noting that their research will focus on studying the relationship between oxygen radiation and solar activity on Mars.
The study relied on data from the MAVEN mission, Al Matrooshi further added, stressing that the results of preliminary studies show that oxygen radiation is more affected by solar activity when it is high, but when it is low, oxygen radiation is more affected by the dynamics of the upper layer of the atmosphere of Mars.
The programme for undergraduates is one of the initiatives of the Emirates Mars Mission. The centre is responsible for implementing and supervising the stages of the Hope Probe in 2020. The UAE Space Agency will finance and supervise the project.
//WAM//Nour Salman//Hassan Bashir//
