By Tayiba Ahmed
Last year, the UAE Government unveiled its plan to send an unmanned probe to Mars to study the atmosphere of the Red Planet, in celebration of the UAE’s 50th national day. It plans to launch the space probe in 2020, so that it arrives to Mars in 2021, just in time for the anniversary. The space probe will be the first Arab probe, and has been named Al Amal or “Hope.” Three American University of Sharjah faculty members, namely Dr. Tariq Majeed, Associate Professor of Physics, Randa As’ad, Assistant Professor of Physics and Dr. Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, all from the Department of Physics of the AUS College of Arts and Sciences, are part of the science team involved in the project.
