In the last days, spaceships launched by the United Arab Emirates and China entered Mars orbit. Next week, NASA's Perseverance Mission will join them, as they will all engage in projects preparing for future missions, including landing human beings on Mars. These bold projects demonstrate what is possible when nations direct physical resources and human creativity to missions of discovery, with potentially great benefits to all mankind. In contrast, the self-proclaimed "greatest deliberative body" in the world, the U.S. Senate, is engaged in a show trial, a highly partisan exercise designed to isolate former President Trump, demonizing him and his supporters, and further polarize the nation. Better for all that we keep our focus on the stars!

China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter fired its engine at 6:52 a.m. EST (11:52 UTC) today to slow down, and get pulled into Mars’ orbit, joining the U.A.E.’s Hope, which arrived yesterday. Unlike any of the first Mars missions ever sent by other countries, China’s Tianwen-1 consists of not just an orbiter, but also a lander and rover.This is a very high-risk approach, but since one can only launch to Mars every 26 months, it will save a lot of time to combine two steps. Over the next two to three months, the orbiter will be photographing the red planet to allow the scientists and engineers to choose a landing spot which is both interesting and safe. The rover will be deployed in May or June and spend three months studying Mars, looking especially for underground water. Speculation has already started as to who will do the sample return mission first—the U.S. or China—which is an important step before manned missions. Happily, NASA Associate Administrator for Science Missions Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted this morning at the news of the Tianwen-1’s success: “Congratulations to China for the Tianwen-1 mission successfully entering Mars orbit today. There is much to discover about the mysteries of Mars and we look forward to your contributions!”

The website of the United Arab Emirates’s Space Agency answers the question, “Why Are We Exploring Mars?” succinctly: “The red planet has captured human imagination for centuries. Now, we are at a junction where we know a great deal about the planet, and we have the vision and technology to explore further. Mars is an obvious target for exploration for many reasons. From our pursuit to find extraterrestrial life to someday expand human civilization to other planets, Mars serves as a long-term and collaborative project for the entire human race.” In a fascinating interview with Space.com on Feb. 8, the day before orbital insertion, U.A.E. Space Agency chair and Minister for Advanced Sciences Sarah al-Amiri described how Hope was designed for its mission as “the very first holistic weather satellite of Mars,” mapping the dynamics of Mars’ weather system throughout the entire day, in every region of Mars, over the course of an entire Martian year, through the combination of its three key instruments, shifting its orbit (from closer in to farther out), and monitoring Mars’s lower and upper atmosphere, and the interactions between them. “Our objectives from the get-go,” she emphasized, “are to ensure that Hope’s science is complementary to other missions and [therefore] usable to various science groups, and also new in nature so that it can continue the vast exploration efforts by different nations about Mars.” Hope is a product of national determination and international cooperation which exemplifies how other developing countries and regions can also leapfrog into being space-faring nations. The U.A.E. is a young nation—founded only 50 years ago—but its founder, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, recognized that “money is meaningless if not mobilized for the good of man,” the country’s oil wealth “valueless without national human resources qualified for and capable of building up the country” through science and industry. It was that understanding that led far-sighted leaders of the U.A.E. to invite physical economist Lyndon LaRouche to deliver the keynote address to a two-day regional symposium on “The Role of Oil and Gas in World Politics,” at the U.A.E.’s Zayed Centre in June 2002, and to develop both nuclear power and space programs. Space Agency chair al-Amiri argues that the purpose of U.A.E.’s space program is that of “stimulating a lot of change within the U.A.E.’s economy that today more than ever should have a solid foundation in science. The best way to do that, from what we have been experimenting with as a nation, has been an exploration mission to space.” To develop its Earth-orbit satellite program in the 2000’s, the U.A.E. turned to South Korea to jointly design and build its first two satellites, then launched from Kazakhstan. Its Space Agency was founded in 2014, and the goal of sending a probe to Mars by 2021, the 50th anniversary of the nation’s founding, adopted quickly thereafter. By 2018, the U.A.E. space team was able to design and build a satellite itself. To meet the tougher technical challenges of building a spacecraft for another planet, the U.A.E. Space Agency partnered with three U.S. universities: the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Arizona State University, and the Space Sciences Lab at the University of California, Berkeley campus. Hope was then launched to Mars on a Japanese rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center! A veteran of NASA Mars missions, now based at Northern Arizona University who worked on the design of one of Hope’s instruments, Christopher Edwards, told the Wall Street Journal that the Hope mission “is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in the spacecraft program so far. There’s a huge training aspect to it and a huge collaborative aspect that is like nothing else.”

After the successful orbital insertion of U.A.E.’s Hope, Assistant Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen, tweeted to the U.A.E. team that “your bold endeavor to explore the Red Planet will inspire many others to reach for the stars. We hope to join you at Mars soon with @NASAPersevere.” Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency wrote that U.A.E.’s success, “gracing U.A.E.’s 50th anniversary, is an inspiration to the world. All the best!”Egypt is one country that is definitely inspired. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “hailed” the arrival of the Hope probe to Mars, Egypt’s Mena news agency reported. He wrote on his official Twitter account: “I proudly watched the arrival of the Hope probe to Mars, which is an unprecedented step in the field of scientific research, and heralds a scientific renaissance in the Arab region,” and sent greetings to “the sisterly United Arab Emirates, the leadership and the people, and to all its geniuses who planned and designed this experiment in an attempt to create a new reality, despite all the extreme challenges at the present time. The experience will not be the ultimate in exploring new horizons in our big world, as the Arab mind is ambitious and does not know the impossible.” Egyptian Space Agency head Mohamed el Qousi told an online symposium sponsored by the U.A.E. Space Agency the same day, that Egypt, “with all its expertise in the field of space and satellites, is looking with great admiration and appreciation to the U.A.E. model in making a positive change in the Arab world,” Egypt State Information Service reported. El Qousi called the “U.A.E. an inspiring model for Arabs,” lauding “the noble global scientific goals … achieved for humanity” by its Hope mission. He also reported that Egypt is working on a project to build “35 education satellites for the benefit of students, specialists and engineers to give them the opportunity to learn, perform programming, and control those satellites… as part of Egypt’s quest for scientific and technological expansion in the fields and activities of space.” The Egyptian report described the subject of the symposium as discussing “prospects for Arab cooperation in the space field, especially in light of Egypt’s great expertise in the field of space and satellites, as well as its highly efficient human resources.” No mention was made of other Arab countries participating, but it is possible that others were involved. After all, the tower building in Dubai was lit up last night at one point with the words: “Arabs to Mars!”

Today the Democrats ranted for some portion of their allotted 16 hours. Nothing was said. No one was watching.