The first Arab space mission to Mars, an unmanned probe named Al’Amal, Arabic for Hope, has lifted off from Japan, in a bid to reveal more about the atmosphere of the Red Planet. The Japanese rocket carrying the probe developed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan. Unlike the other two Mars ventures scheduled for this year, from China and the United States, the UAE's probe will not land on the Red Planet, but orbit it for a whole Martian year, that’s 687 days. Hope will take seven months to travel the 493 million kilometres to Mars, in time to mark the 50th anniversary of the emirates' union in 2021.

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