NASA Forges Martian Data-Exchange Arrangement With UAE Space Agency

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that it has forged a Mars data-sharing pact with its counterpart in the United Arab Emirates. The scientific collaboration involves the exchange of information gleaned from probes currently orbiting the Red Planet, NASA said Tuesday.

The American space agency said that as part of the arrangement, it will be sharing with Emirati partners information sent back by its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution probe. In return, the UAE will be supplying NASA with data from the Hope Probe mission.

The arrangement is expected to add value to both NASA’s MAVEN and the Emirates Mars Mission, as well as the scientific communities involved in analyzing the data the missions collect. 

Shannon Curry, MAVEN’s principal investigator from the University of California, Berkeley, explained that although both missions are investigating Mars, MAVEN and Hope Probe are each exploring different aspects of the Martian atmosphere and upper-atmosphere system. It is expected that when combined, the two spacecraft can provide a better understanding of “the influence of the lower atmosphere on the escape to space of gas from the upper atmosphere.”

NASA said that MAVEN went into orbit around Mars in 2014. Its mission is to investigate the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Mars, offering an insight into how the planet’s climate has changed over time.

Meanwhile, the EMM’s Hope Probe, which went into Mars orbit in 2021, is studying the relationship between the upper layer and lower regions of the Martian atmosphere, giving insight into the planet’s atmosphere at different times of the day and seasons.