His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has announced ambitious plans to explore Venus and the solar system’s asteroid belt.
The new mission will be five times more difficult than the Martian one, within its framework it is planned to explore seven asteroids, while for the first time an Arab landing will be made on the asteroid.
It is planned that the Emirati spacecraft will go on a five-year journey and cover a distance of 3.6 billion kilometers.
It will perform gravity assist maneuvers in orbit of Venus and then Earth, where it picks up the necessary speed to fly to the main asteroid belt beyond Mars.
According to the UAE Space Agency, the five-year expedition will start in 2028. The spacecraft will be built in seven years in collaboration with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at Boulder.
It is noted that the mission will become one of the strategic projects of the UAE, the implementation of which is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the country. Sheikh Mohammed noted that a third of all the stars in the sky are named in Arabic because the Arabs were pioneers in the field of astronomy. “Our mission will glorify Arab civilization,” the Prime Minister said.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, commenting on the initiative, noted that the launch of a new project to explore Venus and the asteroid belt poses new ambitious goals for the national space industry.
The Crown Prince noted that the UAE is ready to make a significant contribution to space exploration, scientific research and expanding knowledge about the solar system.