The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday, the launch of a space mission to explore Venus and a group of asteroids in the solar system in 2028, according to Sheikh Mohammed ben Rachid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai’s post on Twitter.
إطلاق دولة الإمارات مشروعاً جديداً لاستكشاف كوكب الزهرة وحزام الكويكبات ، خطوة جديدة في مساهمتها في علوم الفضاء.. نثق بقدرات أبناء الإمارات وطموحاتهم إلى بلوغ أرفع المراتب العلمية بما يخدم مستقبلنا والمعرفة الإنسانية. pic.twitter.com/DuaAndq8Dj
— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) October 5, 2021
“As part of the country’s 50 projects announcement, seven asteroids will also be explored in the solar system,” Sheikh Mohammed ben Rachid wrote on his Twitter.
This new mission aims to explore the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where most meteorites impacting earth exist.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, said the launch of this new project to explore Venus and the asteroid belt set “an ambitious new goal for our country’s burgeoning space program.”
The journey is expected to last five years and is designed to advance the country’s space engineering, scientific research, and exploration capabilities while creating more opportunities in the private sector.
“We have set our eyes to the stars because our journey to development and progress has no boundaries, no borders, and no limits,” said Sheikh Mohammed.
“Today we are investing in the generations to come,” he said, adding “With each new advancement we make in space, we create opportunities for young people here on Earth,” he continued.
This new mission contains five initiatives, including a fully-funded program to establish Emirati space sector businesses, access to contracts and procurement for the mission by Emirati companies, a vocational training program to train young Emiratis on component assembly and space subsystems engineering as well as a program to bring together local and international universities and research centers to work on the mission.
The equipment that will be used on this five-year mission will be announced in the middle of the next year.
The UAE took its first steps towards space exploration in 1997 while launching the satellite Thoraya.
The Emirates Mars Mission was announced in 2014, the same year as the UAE Space Agency was established, aiming to build the first detailed picture of the climate on the red planet throughout the Martian year, reaching the Martian orbit on February 2021.
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