The first signal from the Emirates' Martian spacecraft will be received at the Robledo de Chavela Spanish space complex
After several cancellations due to adverse weather conditions in the region, everything is scheduled at the Tanegashima Space Center so that on Sunday, July 19, at 23:58 and 14 seconds, Spanish peninsular time -Monday, July 20, 06:58 and 14 seconds in Japan on July 20- the flight of the H-IIA launcher will be lifted, inside which the space probe sent by the Emirates to study the atmosphere of Mars will be travelling. The new date and time has been confirmed by both the government of the Emirates and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Japanese company responsible for placing the spacecraft Al Amal - "Hope" in Arabic- towards the Red Planet, 493.5 million kilometres from Earth.
The Japan Meteorological Service has found a good time interval for the launch from Tanegashima - Japan's main space launch centre - unless a sudden change in weather brings again rain, wind, clouds or storms, or if at the last moment technical problems arise that once again delay the launch. But if the launch is successful and the flight of the probe is also successful, the Emirates will become the first Arab nation to captain an interplanetary mission within our Solar System.
About 30 minutes after take-off, the H-IIA launcher is scheduled to release the spacecraft into the middle of the vast cosmos. From that moment on, the on-board computer will activate, check the operation of the basic on-board equipment and send its first signal to Earth that it is alive. Due to the orbital mechanics of our planet, that first transmission will be received in Spain, in the space tracking complex that NASA has in Robledo de Chávela, about 75 kilometers from Madrid, a facility that manages the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) of the Ministry of Defense.
The satellite antenna that will receive the signal that Al Amal is in good condition will be the DSS-65, a huge structure of 34 meters in diameter and 400 tons of weight that is part of the NASA Deep Space Network. To avoid any kind of anomaly that could prevent the DSS-65 from receiving correctly the message from the Emirate probe, the Spanish technicians have arranged another backup antenna, the DSS-54, also 54 meters in diameter, but weighing 358 tons.
The information that Al Mal is in perfect condition to continue its long journey of 7 months to Mars will be automatically transferred to the operations room of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai and the Control Centre of the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA). After receiving the signal from Madrid, Emirati technicians from the MBRSC and Mitsubishi will verify the health of the spacecraft, check that the solar panels were correctly oriented towards the Sun and assume full control over the spacecraft throughout its navigation stage to the Red Planet.
The launch window for the H-IIA rocket runs from 15 July to 13 August, the time frame that allows the Martian probe Al Amal to reach Mars orbit in February 2021 and to begin official celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding and independence of the Union of Arab Emirates.
