One month after its historic lift-off from Japan, the Hope Probe, the Arab world’s first mission to another planet, has travelled one fifth of its journey to Mars.

This was announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who shared two images from Hope Probe’s star-tracking camera and tweeted, “The Hope Probe is officially 100 million km into its journey to the Red Planet. Mars, as demonstrated in the image captured by the Probe’s Star Tracker, is ahead of us, leaving Saturn and Jupiter behind. The Hope Probe is expected to arrive to Mars in February 2021.”

“In less than 170 days, we will celebrate the probe’s entry into the Red Planet’s orbit. It will be a path-breaking achievement in the history of global Mars missions.”

He noted, “The Emirates Mars Mission will create a giant leap in the country’s space technologies and open new horizons towards other space missions. The next phase requires investments in science for the benefit of mankind. We need young people to lead us towards further scientific breakthroughs.”

The Hope Probe has so far travelled 20 per cent of its 493-million-km journey to Mars since its successful lift-off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on July 20, 2020.

The 100-million-km milestone comes after the probe’s successful completion of its first trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM) that marked the firing of its six Delta-V thrusters. The probe will perform many more TCMs to reach its scheduled Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) in less than 170 days in February 2021, coinciding with the UAE’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Currently travelling at a speed ranging between 110,400 km/h to 122,400km/h, the Hope Probe has already travelled fifth of its journey, equivalent to 130 trips from the Earth to the moon. The probe will automatically reduce its speed to 18,000 km/h as it gets closer to Mars.

This phase of the probe’s journey marks the testing of the three advanced science instruments mounted on the probe that work simultaneously to capture complete data from Mars. The first is an infrared spectrometer to measure the lower atmosphere and analyse the temperature structure. The second is a high-resolution exploration imager that will provide information about ozone levels and depth of water ice in the atmosphere, while the third, an ultraviolet spectrometre, is set to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels.

The Hope Probe will provide the first truly global picture of the Martian atmosphere as it orbits the Red Planet throughout one full Martian year of 687 days.

Once it enters the Red Planet’s orbit, the Probe will send back more than 1,000 gigabytes of new Mars data to be shared with over 200 research centres for free across the world. The mission’s wider objective involves inspiring youth across the world to pursue science-based fields. So far, the mission has attracted 60,000 students to join its diverse educational programmes, developed 200 new technologies and helped publish 51 research papers and build 66 parts of the probe in the UAE.

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“The first satellite will be launched in 2021 and the second – a technologically enhanced one – the following year,” said Dr. Khaled Al Hashmi, Director of the National Space Science and Technology Centre (NSSTC) at the UAE University in Al Ain. The NSSTC was jointly established by the university along with the UAE Space Agency and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ICT-Fund).

Navigation satellites offer positioning signals for navigation functions in car navigation systems and smartphones. They use signals from satellites for satellite positioning services to help detect someone’s current location. These services are also used for surveying and disaster prevention.

The navigation satellite will be the first project of Satellite Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT) Centre, a collaboration formed by Tawazun Economic Council with Airbus and the NSSTC. The satellite project is funded by the UAE Space Agency.

The new satellite is not aimed at replacing any existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) but can be used as a substitute if one existing system does not work, he clarified. It can also be used for purposes such as deploying drones.

Right now, there are four GNSS – Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, GLONASS of Russia, Galileo of the European Union and BeiDou of China. There are also two regional systems – the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), of Japan and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), later given the operational name Navigation with Indian Constellation or NavIC.
The UAE’s Mars Mission, Hope Probe, contributed to the establishment of the AIT Centre, the official said.
The second project of the AIT Centre is the development of 813, the Arab Satellite, an initiative announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

The first phase called the mission concept is complete, Al Hashmi said. The team will soon move to the second phase and has constituted a local team; next task is selecting partners from other Arab countries participating in the project, he revealed.
The UAE initiated the creation of the first Arab Space Coordination Group in 2019 along with 10 Arab nations to develop 813, an advanced satellite funded by the UAE Space Agency to monitor earth, environment and climate. The name 813 refers to the date that marked the beginning of prosperity for the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under the reign of Al-Ma’mun.

The new satellite will be designed and manufactured by Arab engineers from countries that have signed the charter for the launch. The 11 countries are the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Egypt. The member countries voted for the UAE to lead the new organisation.

The satellite that will be launched in 2024 will be the first in the region to collect atmospheric data on climate change. The collected data will be shared with other universities and institutions in the Arab world, he explained.

Meanwhile, the Hope Probe, which took off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre on July 20, is staying healthy on its course and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai is receiving signals as per the expectations, the official revealed.

Space missions will raise hopes about future of science and technology in the county and region, Al Hashmi said.

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Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Chairman of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, was the first individual in the world to commence the trial of a Phase III inactivated vaccine for COVID-19. Acting Undersecretary of the Department Dr. Jamal Al Kaabi was the second volunteer to try the vaccine showcasing the commitment of the UAE Government and the Health Authorities to find a cure for humanity’s biggest challenge of the 21st century.

The world’s first Phase III trial is the result of a cooperation partnership between Abu Dhabi based G42 Healthcare, currently at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 in the UAE, and Sinopharm CNBG, the world’s sixth largest vaccine manufacturer, ranked 169th on the Fortune Global 500 list of 2018.

The trials are being operated by health practitioners from Abu Dhabi Health Services, SEHA, who are providing facilities at five of their clinics in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain in addition to a mobile clinic to ensure the trials are readily accessible to volunteers participating in the programme.

Over the past few months, G42 Healthcare meanwhile, has established a massive throughput laboratory to speed up the detection of the disease; manufactured essential Personal Protective Equipment; conducted research into new vaccines and drug therapies, and used its advanced AI capabilities to map and predict trends in the outbreak, virus mutations and help combat the disease.

The UAE was the preferred choice for the cooperation partnership to conduct the Phase III trials for the inactive vaccine as the nation is home to over 200 nationalities, allowing for robust research across multiple ethnicities and increasing its feasibility for global application on the success of the trials.

The UAE Health Authorities have recently issued a permit for up to 15,000 volunteers to take part in the trials. G42 Healthcare and SEHA are working towards achieving a minimum of 5,000 participants in the first stage of the programme to ensure the robustness of the results.

Today’s clinical trial commencement is the start of a series of national initiatives to both foster population health and to enhance the UAE’s medical research and development capabilities, including the local capacity to manufacture the vaccine.

Trial formally began in the presence of Chinese Ambassador to the UAE Ni Jian; senior health department officials and G42 Healthcare and Sinopharm CNBG representatives. The first group of volunteers including UAE nationals and expatriates received the vaccine at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.

The clinical trials are being conducted under the strict guidance and supervision of the Department of Health Abu Dhabi and SEHA – the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company. The trials follow all international guidelines stipulated by the WHO and the United States Food and Drug Administration, FDA.

The study, if successful, will be approved and accredited by the Ethics Committee for Scientific Research in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Commenting on the start of the programme, Dr. Nawal Ahmed Alkaabi, UAE Principle Investigator Sheikh Khalifa Medical City CMO, and Chairperson of the National COVID-19 Clinical Management Committee, said, “Our participation in this trial enables us to make a major contribution in the global fight to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a matter of national pride that we are able to help facilitate the trial process that could have a worldwide impact and help people around the world to benefit from research and – if successful – the manufacture of a vaccine to fight back against this disease.”

The phase III clinical trial follows the success of the phase I and phase II trials conducted by Sinopharm in China, which resulted in 100 percent of the volunteers generating antibodies after two doses in 28 days. The phase III trials will be open to individual volunteers aged between 18 and 60 living in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and will last for 42 days.

A key factor for COVID-19 vaccine is the urgency around global implementation. Computing power, data processing and diagnostic analysis are G42 Healthcare’s global competitive advantage to support the successful delivery of the world’s first phase III trials of inactivated vaccine.

G42 Healthcare CEO Ashish Koshy said, “We are enormously proud that Sinopharm CNBG has partnered G42 Healthcare in this groundbreaking phase III clinical trial in the UAE. Using our AI solutions, super-computer, advanced diagnostics solutions for COVID-19, G42 Healthcare is uniquely postured to conduct these trials. G42 Healthcare will be responsible for running clinical operations for this trial. We will be leveraging our group’s technical and our own business capabilities to compute, correlate and provide fast and synthesized insights by deploying multiple AI models on the data generated during the trials to accelerate the much awaiting results.

“G42 Healthcare will be mobilizing the logistical management of the trials taking in learnings from its proven capabilities in CRO management, clinical sites initiations and other E2E programme management activities.”

Jingjin Zhu, President, Biological products, Sinopharm CNBG added, “The United Arab Emirates is a nation of innovation and tolerance, that is home to individuals from every part of the world and ethnic background. We will work closely with our partner to complete this clinical trials successfully, and make this vaccine available to the people in need worldwide. With the full support of local authorities, cutting-edge technologies provided by our partner G42 Healthcare, and high-quality services and supports from the medical and clinical entities, we will jointly contribute to the battle against COVID-19 worldwide.”

Now that the trials have officially commenced, G42 Healthcare and the UAE Health Authorities will shortly launch a public awareness campaign to encourage UAE residents to participate in this critical to humanity clinical trial programme.

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