UAE announces groundbreaking asteroid belt mission to search for clues to origin of life

The United Arab Emirates on Monday unveiled plans to send a spacecraft to explore the solar system’s main asteroid belt, the oil-rich nation’s latest space program following the successful launch of the Hope spacecraft to Mars in 2020.

The project, known as the Emirates Asteroid Belt Mission, aims to develop spacecraft over the next few years before launching in 2028 to study various asteroids.

“This mission is a follow-up to the Mars mission, which is the region’s first mission to Mars,” said Mohsen Al Awadhi, program director for the UAE Asteroid Belt Mission. “We’re creating the same thing with this mission. That is, first mission These seven asteroids are being explored exclusively ever, making it the first of its kind in terms of the Grand Tour. ”

The UAE becomes the first and second Arab country to successfully orbit Mars for the first time after the Hope probe reaches Mars red planet February 2021. The spacecraft’s goals include providing the first complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers, and helping answer key questions about Earth’s climate and composition.

If successful, the newly announced spacecraft will soar at 33,000 kilometers (20,500 miles) per hour, embarking on a seven-year voyage to discover six asteroids. It will eventually deploy a landing craft on a rare seventh “red” asteroid that scientists say may provide insight into the building blocks of life on Earth.

Organic compounds like water are an essential building block of life and have been found on some asteroids, possibly delivered through collisions with other organic-rich objects or through the creation of complex organic molecules in space. Studying the origin of these compounds, and the possible presence of water on red asteroids, could reveal the origin of Earth’s water and thus provide valuable insights into the origin of life on our planet.

hard work is a important milestone For the fledgling UAE space agency, which was just formed in 2014, it has had success sending the Amal (or “Hope”) probe to Mars.New journey will cover more than ten times the distance of Mars mission.

The explorer named the MBR after the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also served as vice president and prime minister of the hereditary-ruled UAE. It will head toward Venus first, whose gravity will bounce it back to Earth, then Mars.

The spacecraft will eventually reach the asteroid belt, flying nearly 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the celestial boulder for a total distance of 5 billion kilometers (about 3 billion miles).

In October 2034, the spacecraft is expected to make its final push to the seventh and final asteroid, named Justitia, deployed the lander more than a year later. Justitia is thought to be one of only two known red asteroids that are thought to likely have a surface filled with organic material and originate in the region where giant planets formed, and beyond.

“It’s one of the two reddest objects in the world asteroid belt, scientists don’t really understand why it’s so red,” said Hoor AlMaazmi, a space science researcher at the UAE Space Agency. “There are theories that it originally came from the Kuiper belt, where there are more red objects. So that’s one thing we can look into, because it’s also possible that it’s rich in water. ”

MBR Explorer will deploy a landing craft to study the surface of Justitia, fully developed by a private UAE start-up company. It could lay the groundwork for possible future extraction of resources from asteroids, ultimately supporting extended human missions in space — perhaps even the UAE’s ambitious goal of establishing a colony on Mars by 2117.

“We have identified the different key areas where we would like startups from the private sector to engage, through which we will engage with them. We know that the knowledge we have in the UAE is still under construction. We will provide these startups with their required knowledge,” said Al Awadhi.