Dubai Enters the Space Race with a Newly Appointed MBRSC Chief

As the United Arab Emirates (UAE) maintains its acceleration into the tech scene, Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) publicized the new appointment of its director-general. 

Dubai’s Crown Prince and President of the MBRSC, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum released an official statement publicizing the decision of the newly appointed deputy director manager, Salem Humaid AlMarri. 

Al Marri’s 15 years of experience could pave the way for a much more expanded vision for MBRSC to take in advanced scientific and technical fields. The newly appointed director has built for himself a comprehensive reputation driven by the success of many programs in the UAE National Programme. This includes Mars 2117, Emirates Mars Mission, UAE Astronaut Programme, and the UAE Satellite Programme. 

His commissioning comes months after the UAE’s Space Agency’s initial announcement of a new Emirati interplanetary mission – structure to push the Emirates’ space engineering capabilities, scientific research, and exploration efficiency. 

“The spacecraft will undertake a 3.6 billion km, five-year journey, which will see it perform gravity assist maneuvers by orbiting first Venus, then Earth in order to build the velocity required in order to reach the main asteroid belt, located beyond Mars,” according to Arabian Business. 

Scheduled for launch in 2028 with the aim of probing the source of some of the Earth’s most impacted meteorites, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. 

The mission’s initial close planetary approach orbiting Venus will be preceded by a near orbit of Earth in 2029, making the first-ever lapse of a key asteroid belt object in 2030. This will play a vital role in examining the total sum of seven leading belt asteroids before the mission ends in a landing on an asteroid in 2033, with a 560 million kilometers stretch from Earth.