Dubai : The United Arab Emirates (UAE), already home to the world’s tallest tower, is now reaching for the stars, with plans to send the first Arab spaceship to Mars in 2021.
The energy-rich country on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula announced plans on Wednesday to establish a space program to oversee the undertaking. “The UAE Mars probe represents the Islamic world’s entry into the era of space exploration. We will prove that we are capable of delivering new scientific contributions to humanity,” said UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan.
Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum says the mission will highlight the Arab world’s positive contribution to humanity, despite the many conflicts across the Middle East. A Cabinet statement says the unmanned space probe is also aimed at diversifying the country’s economy and building up its local talent in the fields of technology and aerospace.
The Mars probe will take nine months to complete the more than 60 million-kilometer (37.5 million-mile) journey to Mars, and will make the UAE one of only nine countries with space programs exploring the Red Planet, the statement said. A UAE Space Agency will be set up to supervise the mission and develop a space technology industry in the country, a government statement said. It did not give details such as the cost of the probe or how it would be designed and built.