UAE's Amal spacecraft rockets toward Mars in Arab world 1st
Source: AP
By MARI YAMAGUCHI and VICTORIA MILKO
TOKYO (AP) A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab worlds first interplanetary mission.
The liftoff of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earths neighbor that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States.
At the space center in Dubai, people watching were transfixed by the liftoff, then cheered and clapped, with one woman with offering a celebratory cry common for weddings.
Amal blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA rocket on time at 6:58 a.m. (2158 GMT Sunday) after being delayed five days by bad weather.
In this photo released by MHI, an H-IIA rocket with United Arab Emirates' Mars orbiter Hope lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, southern Japan Monday, July 20, 2020. A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed away Monday on a seven-month journey to Mars, kicking off the Arab worlds first interplanetary mission. (MHI via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/2ac2805903b50493f42081568755b2c4
sandensea
(21,711 posts)And then people wonder why we can't get anything big done anymore.
Arthur_Frain
(1,868 posts)This is important. The "Red/Green/Blue Mars" trilogy was one of the most wonderful "hard" science fiction series I've read. Leaving aside the potentially workable science, the political intrigue he wove throughout the series was visionary.
Don't think for a moment that the first human biosphere isn't going to set the metric, it is. Technology is advancing so quickly now, that the self replicating construction robots Robinson envisioned are probably already off the drawing board. Who owns that biosphere is crucial.
I'm not doom and glooming about the demise of the earth in the series, although it's more than likely I suppose. The point is the new frontier, the new push outward by humanity, will be dominated by someone. Personally, I'd prefer it wasn't a theocracy, but that's just me.
dalton99a
(81,673 posts)Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)denbot
(9,901 posts)Or am I missing something?
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)I makes me think of some fast acting colonic medication (I am kidding of course)
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)space.
denem
(11,045 posts)"The audacity of hope".
Mosby
(16,401 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 21, 2020, 04:27 PM - Edit history (1)