A pivotal month for the study of Mars will culminate with the arrival of Nasa’s Perseverance rover on Thursday, beginning a period of discovery that aims to pave the way for future human exploration of the Red Planet.
Perseverance was the third mission to reach Mars in a matter of weeks, after the UAE's history-making Hope and China's Tianwen-1 orbiters, and together the interplanetary voyagers will provide scientists with the clearest picture yet of our mysterious celestial neighbour.
But what are each mission's aims? And what does it mean for the future of space exploration?
At three metres long and weighing 1,250 kilograms, the Perseverance rover is the largest robotic explorer yet sent to Mars. Its size means it can carry a scientific payload more than 50 per cent larger than previous rovers, including a record 25 cameras and microphones, a drill and even a drone helicopter.
Perseverance is also the first rover designed specifically to seek evidence of ancient microbial life. After a dangerous landing on Mars' Jezero Crater, an ancient lake likely to contain any such evidence, the rover will continue to explore the planet's surface for at least two Earth years.
With Nasa targeting a crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s, Perseverance will also test technologies that could one day be used to help human beings explore or even colonise the planet.
The rover will use its sensors to monitor environmental conditions so that scientists can better understand how to protect future human explorers, as well as test technologies for creating oxygen on Mars.
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment, or Moxie, is intended to show how carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere can be converted into oxygen that could be used for breathing or fuel by future explorers.
If all goes to plan, Nasa’s robotic explorer will be sharing the planet with its Curiosity rover that landed in 2012 and the InSight lander, which arrived in 2018.
To date, only Nasa has landed craft on and explored Mars.
That will change with China's Tianwen-1 rover, which is due to touch down in the southern part of Mars’s Utopia Planitia in May, close to where Nasa’s Viking 2 mission landed in 1976.
One of the rover’s priorities is to use a radar that will try to detect pockets of water beneath the surface, which may contain life.
Orbiting high above the Martian surface, the UAE’s Hope probe and its suite of sensors will carry out its mission over two Earth years to analyse changes in the atmosphere across the entire planet.
The Arab world's first interplanetary mission will also study the presence of oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere, and could help scientists to better understand why those elements are lost to space.
Alongside the Hope probe, other orbiters from the US, Europe and India are aloft over Mars, helping to transmit data over tens of millions of kilometres back to Earth.
To facilitate this busy period of exploration, Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is preparing what it called a "tightly choreographed dance" by its Martian satellites to maintain vital data links back to Earth throughout the Perseverance landing.
"It is a huge endeavour to maintain communications with our spacecraft throughout the solar system, but Mars surface missions take this commitment to another level," said Bradford Arnold, project manager of Nasa's venerable Deep Space Network.
The choreography will allow viewers on Earth to watch the Perseverance's entry and landing. Although it is by now a well-practised procedure, it is highly complicated.
"While the choreography of this relay scheme is now somewhat commonplace, it is still extremely challenging to co-ordinate all the communication links for the very brief time during a lander's arrival," Mr Arnold said.
All three of the latest missions to arrive at Mars started the journey during a launch window in 2020, when the positions of Earth and Mars meant a shorter journey was possible.
The next launch window will arrive in 2022, when European and Russian missions to the Red Planet are scheduled to take off carrying new experiments.
SpaceX is also working on Mars exploration, and chief executive Elon Musk said late last year that a first uncrewed mission to the Red Planet using the Starship spacecraft it is developing could happen as early as 2024.
Company%20Profile
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Lowest Test scores
26 - New Zealand v England at Auckland, March 1955
30 - South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth, Feb 1896
30 - South Africa v England at Birmingham, June 1924
35 - South Africa v England at Cape Town, April 1899
36 - South Africa v Australia at Melbourne, Feb. 1932
36 - Australia v England at Birmingham, May 1902
36 - India v Australia at Adelaide, Dec. 2020
38 - Ireland v England at Lord's, July 2019
42 - New Zealand v Australia in Wellington, March 1946
42 - Australia v England in Sydney, Feb. 1888
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Australia squads
ODI: Tim Paine (capt), Aaron Finch (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye.
T20: Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth.
Also on December 7 to 9, the third edition of the Gulf Car Festival (www.gulfcarfestival.com) will take over Dubai Festival City Mall, a new venue for the event. Last year's festival brought together about 900 cars worth more than Dh300 million from across the Emirates and wider Gulf region – and that first figure is set to swell by several hundred this time around, with between 1,000 and 1,200 cars expected. The first day is themed around American muscle; the second centres on supercars, exotics, European cars and classics; and the final day will major in JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars, tuned vehicles and trucks. Individuals and car clubs can register their vehicles, although the festival isn’t all static displays, with stunt drifting, a rev battle, car pulls and a burnout competition.
Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
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
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Bullet%20Train
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20David%20Leitch%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Brad%20Pitt%2C%20Aaron%20Taylor-Johnson%2C%20Brian%20Tyree%20Henry%2C%20Sandra%20Bullock%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
New process leads to panic among jobseekers
As a UAE-based travel agent who processes tourist visas from the Philippines, Jennifer Pacia Gado is fielding a lot of calls from concerned travellers just now. And they are all asking the same question.
“My clients are mostly Filipinos, and they [all want to know] about good conduct certificates,” says the 34-year-old Filipina, who has lived in the UAE for five years.
Ms Gado contacted the Philippines Embassy to get more information on the certificate so she can share it with her clients. She says many are worried about the process and associated costs – which could be as high as Dh500 to obtain and attest a good conduct certificate from the Philippines for jobseekers already living in the UAE.
“They are worried about this because when they arrive here without the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] clearance, it is a hassle because it takes time,” she says.
“They need to go first to the embassy to apply for the application of the NBI clearance. After that they have go to the police station [in the UAE] for the fingerprints. And then they will apply for the special power of attorney so that someone can finish the process in the Philippines. So it is a long process and more expensive if you are doing it from here.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203S%20Money%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202018%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20London%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Zhiznevsky%2C%20Eugene%20Dugaev%20and%20Andrei%20Dikouchine%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%245.6%20million%20raised%20in%20total%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Match info
Karnataka Tuskers 110-3
J Charles 35, M Pretorius 1-19, Z Khan 0-16
Deccan Gladiators 111-5 in 8.3 overs
K Pollard 45*, S Zadran 2-18
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Result
Crystal Palace 0 Manchester City 2
Man City: Jesus (39), David Silva (41)
