The UAE's Hope probe is another step closer to begin capturing data from Mars after it moved into the transfer orbit.
On Tuesday, Hope was successfully placed in the planet's capture orbit. To collect data on the Red Planet, it must move into the science orbit but first pass through the transfer orbit – where the probe is now.
The spacecraft will spend two months in the transfer orbit as mission control at Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre carries out a series of rigorous tests to ensure Hope's subsystems and instruments are working.
Omran Sharaf, Mars mission director, said the spacecraft will beam back the first image in a week.
A day after UAE made history by becoming the fifth country to reach Mars, Mr Sharaf described the tense orbit entry stage as nerve-racking.
He said support from the community helped motivate the team, who had spent the past six years working hard to ensure its success.
“Yesterday was one of the riskiest phases and we managed to succeed that stage – and by that I mean Emiratis and residents – whether you work in the space sector or not,” he said.
“The mission tested how much the team can handle and also us, as a society, on how we can deal with such difficult tasks. What was special was seeing ... all of the UAE community supporting this mission and that they understood, if the mission failed, we had already achieved success.”
Tuesday's successful orbit insertion came six years after the mission's inception, and after the probe had travelled through space for seven months. Hope defied a 50 per cent risk of failure to enter Mars orbit.
It will spend two years orbiting the planet and sending back data to fill a gap in research and provide the world with more information about Mars.
The probe will study how energy moves through the atmosphere during the day and through the seasons of the 687-day Mars year.
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What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
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Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
Company Profile
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Lexus LX700h specs
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
