The United Arab Emirates—a collection of sheikhdoms best known for its skyscrapers, palm-shaped islands and mega attractions—is now pushing to join the ranks of spacefaring nations, in what will be a first for the Arab world. Marking the 50th anniversary of its unification into the U.A.E., “Hope,” an unmanned spacecraft will be launched on July 15 from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center, and it is expected to reach its target — Mars — in February.
While the mission objective is to provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in Mars’ atmosphere and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, the probe is a foundation for a much bigger goal—building a human settlement on Mars within the next 100 years. Dubai has hired architects to imagine what a Martian city might look like and recreate it in its desert as a “Science City,” at a cost of around 500 million dirhams ($135 million).
“U.A.E. figured out that space is very important for our development and sustainability. It’s a bridge to the future,” Mohammed al-Ahbabi, director general of the U.A.E. Space Agency, told AFP. Sarah al-Amiri, 33, the mission’s deputy project manager and also the U.A.E. Minister of State for Advanced Sciences, said the trip to Mars is “a message of hope for the region, to set an example of what is possible if we take the talent of the youth and use them positively, this is what’s possible…. We’ve worked on investing in our space sector for over 15 years ... it’s about ensuring that this talent is developed for the rest of the region,” she said from Tokyo.
In the runup to the Mars mission, the U.A.E. announced it was opening its doors to Arabs across the region to take part in a three-year space program. “They can come in and gain experience and be the vehicles of change for the entire region. We cannot go about saying that this region is volatile and remain passive about it,” Amiri said. “People want stability, want opportunities.”
