The United Arab Emirates announced on October 5 that it will send a spacecraft to the asteroid belt in 2028.
“Our goal is clear: to accelerate the development of knowledge-based and innovative businesses in the Emirates,” said Sarah Al Amiri, Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, in a statement.
This will be the UAE’s second interplanetary mission after successfully launching the Hope spacecraft to Mars orbit in July 2020.
Simulation of the asteroid belt. (Photo: ESA/ATG).
If everything goes according to plan, the new spacecraft will launch in 2028 and reach the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter by 2030. It will approach seven different space rocks during its journey for research, before landing on an asteroid in 2033.
The ultimate goal is quite ambitious! So far, only NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have successfully performed a “soft landing” on an asteroid, including the NEAR Shoemaker missions, OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa1, and Hayabusa2.
In this new interplanetary effort, the UAE will continue to collaborate with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, the main partner for last year’s Mars mission. The scientific objectives and instruments that the spacecraft will carry will be announced by mid-next year.
The UAE also plans to send a lander named Rashid to the Moon’s surface in 2022. This West Asian nation hopes that its space exploration efforts will help develop and diversify an economy that has long relied heavily on oil exports.
“We are investing in the next generation. With every new achievement that the UAE makes in space, we create opportunities for young people on Earth,” emphasized UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a statement.
