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The United Arab Emirates’ main asteroid belt is ambitious, targeting seven different space rocks.
mission announcement Back to 2021but now poster To be announced in June at the Asteroids, Comets, Meteors Conference in Arizona, which revealed the mission’s specific goals, technical art (opens in a new tab) reports.
“Mission to be launched in 2028 to visit seven main belts asteroidincluding six high-speed flyby encounters en route to a rendezvous with asteroid 269 Justitia,” the document detailed the mission’s design.
photo: asteroid in deep space
Here is the full list of goals:
- Overflight: 10253 Westerwald
- Overflight: 623 Chimaera
- Flyover: 13294 Rockox
- Flyover: 88055
- Overflight: 23871
- Flyover: 59980
- Meeting Point: 269 Justice
After rendezvous with 269 Justitia, the spacecraft will deploy a lander to attempt to touch down on the surface.Notably, only NASA’s Osiris Tyrannosaurus Rex Rendezvous with Near-Earth Asteroid (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft with Japan’s Hayabusa 1 and Hayabusa 2 So far, probes have successfully soft-landed on asteroids.
The landing target is another rarity.Asteroid 269 Justitia, about 33 miles (53 kilometers) wide, is reddish in color, possibly due to the presence of an organic compound called tholin, which is abundant on Earth pluto and other icy bodies in the outer solar system, Ars Technica noted.
other Paper The scientific objectives for the mission state that the spacecraft will reach 269 Justitia in April 2034. If the asteroid formed in the outer solar system, the UAE mission could provide unique insight into objects beyond Neptune.
The overall science goals are considered to be to understand the origin and evolution of water-rich asteroids and to assess their potential use for resources.
The spacecraft will use solar electric propulsion during its six-year voyage and will use gravity assist to fly by Venus, Earth and Mars on its journey.
UAE will partner with CU Boulder, just as it did for hope mars missionthe country’s first interplanetary exploration.
While the UAE’s first lunar lander was recently lost on ispace’s Hakuto-R lander during a failed landing attempt, the Hope probe is still in orbit around Mars and recently conducted a unprecedented investigation of Deimosthe smaller of the two moons of the red planet.
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