Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – After launching the Hope mission to Mars, the United Arab Emirates is preparing a new space exploration mission. This Middle Eastern country will start building another planetary probe mission launched in 2028. The goal is Venus and seven objects in the Asteroid belt in 12 years.
This plan was announced directly by the Vice President of the EUA, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. This mission will cover more than 3.6 billion kilometers.
“The UAE is determined to make a meaningful contribution to space exploration, scientific research and our understanding of the solar system,” Abu Dhabi’s crown prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed wrote on his personal Twitter account.
The goal of this mission is to explore seven objects in the asteroid belt, a region of space between Mars and Jupiter that is stacked with millions of oddly shaped rocks orbiting the sun.
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Photo: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed teases about US mission plan to explore Planet Venus (Doc Twitter)- – |
Objects within this belt have been studied by space agencies, such as NASA, in the past, the UAE’s ambitious mission was to photograph seven asteroids and then land on one of them to collect samples.
If it could achieve all of that, the UAE would be the fourth country to land on an asteroid’s surface. “This mission is five times more complex than EMM,” said Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, chair of the UAE Space Agency.
Like the Hope mission, the UAE agency will work closely with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The name of the mission will be announced later.
Venus has become an increasingly popular target for space missions in the past year. NASA plans to launch two spacecraft to the planet, and both the Indian space agency and the European Space Agency are preparing missions to the planet.
(roy/miq)
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