The UAE’s Mars probe could not have been better named.
Success or failure were always only secondary to the mission’s greatest achievement. To lift up our heads and show us the universe.
The country made history on Tuesday evening when it joined an elite club of five nations that have sent a spacecraft to the Red Planet.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, personally thanked staff from mission control in Dubai.
[You were] part of a generation that makes us proud. You took our honour and our reputation up to Mars
The Crown Prince said the bright young Emiratis who led the mission, including project chief Omran Sharaf, were "part of a generation that makes us proud. You took our honour and our reputation up to Mars".
After seven months in space and six years since its inception, Hope defied a 50 per cent risk of failure to enter the Mars orbit.
And its lonely 493.5 million kilometres journey through space was an incredible one.
It first blasted off from Japan's Tanegashima Island in July, 2020 in the midst of a pandemic, overseen by a skeleton self-isolating crew and with almost no live spectators.
It survived the initial launch, the jettisoning of rockets, course correction manoeuvres and maintained contact with mission control in Dubai.
But on Tuesday evening, Emirati engineers faced a nail-biting wait as it made its final approach.
At 7.30pm, it fired its thrusters and used half of its 800kg of fuel to slam on the brakes and cut its speed from 120,000kph to 18,000kph.
The effect - not that any human saw it - was a spectacular feat of engineering.
As a result of the distance between Earth and Mars, engineers in Dubai waited at least 11 minutes for the message confirming thrusters worked. The six thrusters fired for about 30 minutes in all.
During that time, all contact was lost as scheduled when the probe disappeared behind the Red Planet.
Then came the signal: success.
It could have all gone wrong. Due to the complexity involved and the wild, unforgiving nature of space, many previous missions have been lost at this point - or much earlier.
To date, more than half of Mars missions have failed. The first from early Soviet attempts to China's Yinghuo-1 in 2011, whether on the launch pad, on approach to Mars, at points in between.
Sarah Al Amiri, Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency and Minister of State for Advanced Sciences, said the project went through setbacks along the way but were overcome.
"I started working on this programme at the end of 2013 and it's been a series of challenges that we've sometimes thought were unsurmountable.
"We had only six years to design and develop it. The budget we had wasn't very high. We went through various times when things broke. We have to fix it in time to get the spacecraft to where we needed it to be.
"What has made this mission remarkable is not only the 200 Emiratis that were working on this, it's the 450 people from different continents, backgrounds and beliefs. This was truly an international endeavour and this is what science needs to be, this is what exploration is all about."
At Burj Park in Dubai, officials and media who gathered to watch the orbit on big screens cheered as the mission was hailed a success.
The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, was lit up throughout the event and displayed the faces of the engineers who worked tirelessly on the mission over the past six years.
A projection of the Hope probe was also shown on its façade, as well as images of the Red Planet.
Science mission begins
Next, the science begins.
The Hope probe mission was not a publicity project.
From the start, the project's engineers and UAE leaders wanted to fill a gap in research and make ground-breaking discoveries about the Red Planet.
Hope is best described as a weather or climate satellite.
It will study how energy moves through the atmosphere throughout the day and throughout the seasons of its 687-day year.
Hope is one of three Mars missions set for this year. China's Tianwen-1 is due to enter Martian orbit on Wednesday. In addition to an orbiter, the spacecraft will set down a lander and rover to explore the surface of the planet.
Nasa's Perseverance rover is also due to land on the surface of Mars this month.
In a message on Twitter, Nasa congratulated the Emirati team on its success and quoted the 10th century Iraqi poet Al Mutanabbi.
"Dear Hope Mars Mission, congratulations on arriving at Mars! In the words of the poet Al Mutanabbi: "If you ventured in pursuit of glory, don’t be satisfied with less than the stars."
Spectacular images
As with all Mars research, scientists want to understand why Mars once had water - and what happened to it.
This involves studying the behaviour of atoms of hydrogen and oxygen at the very top of the atmosphere. It is thought that understanding these could explain the erosion of the Red Planet's atmosphere by the particles that stream away from the Sun.
The probe's capabilities also mean we should see hugely impressive images of the Red Planet soon.
This, it is hoped, will also capture the imagination of young Arabs around the world, and make them proud to be among the stars.
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
A general guide to how active you are:
Less than 5,000 steps - sedentary
5,000 - 9,999 steps - lightly active
10,000 - 12,500 steps - active
12,500 - highly active
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Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
The biog
Hobbies: Salsa dancing “It's in my blood” and listening to music in different languages
Favourite place to travel to: “Thailand, as it's gorgeous, food is delicious, their massages are to die for!”
Favourite food: “I'm a vegetarian, so I can't get enough of salad.”
Favourite film: “I love watching documentaries, and am fascinated by nature, animals, human anatomy. I love watching to learn!”
Best spot in the UAE: “I fell in love with Fujairah and anywhere outside the big cities, where I can get some peace and get a break from the busy lifestyle”
