'Hope' and ambition drive UAE's Mars mission

The UAE has limited experience of designing and manufacturing spacecraft - and yet here it is attempting something only the US, Russia, Europe and India have succeeded in doing. But it speaks to the Emiratis' ambition that they should dare to take on this challenge. Their engineers, mentored by American experts, have produced a sophisticated probe in just six years - and when this satellite gets to Mars, it's expected to deliver novel science, revealing fresh insights on the workings of the planet's atmosphere. In particular, scientists think it can add to our understanding of how Mars lost much of its air and with it a great deal of its water. The Hope probe is regarded very much as a...