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On Tuesday, Omran Sharaf, the project manager of the Emirates Mars Mission, stood in a control room at the UAE Space Agency’s headquarters in Dubai, surrounded by a team of young engineers, and addressed his fellow Emiratis, Arabs and the entire Islamic world. “We have arrived in orbit around the Red Planet,” he said, referring to the Hope probe, which had reached the end of its 480 million km journey to Mars.
The moment added to the constellation of Arab history’s relationship with the stars. Many scientists and astronomers have called the region home throughout the ages. The eighth century scientist Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al Farazi was the first Arab to construct an astrolabe, while another Middle Eastern astronomer, Al-Battani, established the mathematical logic that led to the device s invention. Since the region’s ancient times, Bedouins and merchant sailors alike relied on celestial navigation to find their way in the world.