UAE to launch probe targeting asteroid between Mars, Jupiter

Abu Dhabi, October 07: Following the success of its Mars Probe, the United Arab Emirates announced plans to send a probe to land on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter to collect data on the origins of the universe.

 

If this mission is successful, UAE will join the elite club of the European Union, Japan, and the United States. These countries have already completed their mission either an asteroid or a comet. UAE’s mission would remain behind on the asteroid and transmit back the information regarding the composition of the asteroid on the Earth.

 

 

The project targets a 2028 launch with a landing in 2033, a five-year journey in which the spacecraft will travel some 3.6 billion kilometers (2.2 billion miles). The spacecraft would need to slingshot first around Venus and then the Earth to gather enough speed to reach an asteroid some 560 million kilometers (350 million miles) away.

 

For the mission, the Space Agency of UAE will partner with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics of the University of Colorado to develop this project. The laboratory will offer a cost and describe what particular features of the asteroid to UAE’s space agency.

 

It is still under discussion what data the Emirates will collect but the mission will be an even greater challenge than previous ones, given the spacecraft will travel both near the sun and far from it, said Sarah al-Amiri, the chair of the UAE Space Agency and a minister of state for advanced technology.

  

 

The project comes after the Emirates successfully put its Amal, or “Hope,” probe in orbit around Mars in February. The car-size Amal cost $200m to build and launch, excluding operating costs at Mars. The asteroid mission likely would be more expensive, given its challenges. The Emirates plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024. UAE has also set the ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.

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