As a part of its space exploration agenda, the United Arab Emirates launched the Mars Mission and sent a probe to the Red Planet on 20 July 2020. The probe was set to arrive on Mars on 9 February 2021. This meant the country would be the first Arab nation (and the fifth nation worldwide) to arrive on Mars. The UAE government wanted to make sure that everyone in the world was watching because the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope Probe would be the first probe to provide a complete picture of Mars’ atmosphere and share the information collected with the whole world.

The concept for the mission was ‘Impossible is Possible’, a reference to the many amazing things that have occurred in the UAE and to the difficulty of sending a probe to Mars given that 50% of the earlier missions to Mars had failed.

It is bigger than that. It consists of two giant 70-meter cranes and a 40-meter holo screen with sky mapping projection.