The man charged with propelling the UAE's space centre into a golden era of prosperity has set out an ambitious five-year vision for further human space flights, more satellite development and interplanetary missions.
Salam Al Marri, who was appointed director general of Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in December, told The National of the importance of collaborating with other nations in this world to explore other worlds.
He spoke of his plans for all four members of the nation's astronaut corps to be given the opportunity to travel into space.
“Today, I think the country is definitely focused on building exploration missions, human space flight, Earth-observation and remote-sensing satellites,” he said.
We want to have an ecosystem of suppliers, supply chain, local supply chain manufacturers and companies that we can work with
Salem Al Marri
“We have four astronauts and our objective is definitely to fly all of these astronauts and make sure they have meaningful and long-duration missions.”
Engineers have built the Arab world’s first Moon mission that the space centre hopes to launch this year.
It is part of a long-term Moon exploration programme Mr Al Marri wants to develop, which would involve multiple rovers and orbiters.
Need for local space expertise
To help the private space sector grow, Mr Al Marri wants to secure more local partners for space projects, instead of foreign ones, as in some of the previous missions when the UAE’s space sector was not as developed.
“We want to have an ecosystem of suppliers, supply chain, local supply chain manufacturers and companies that we can work with, to subcontract elements of our projects with, and then the rest we do in-house, or at least the integration,” he said.
However, international partnerships remain crucial for the space centre to help carry out some of the more complex missions which lie ahead.
The space centre worked with three US universities to build a Mars spacecraft from scratch — the pioneering Hope probe — which has been successfully transmitting data since February 9, 2021.
A partnership with Nasa is helping the UAE’s four astronauts train for future, long-duration, missions.
“Without the element of international cooperation, whether you're a small or big agency, you're really not going to survive very long,” said Mr Al Marri.
“We’re always open to work with everyone. If we look at launches, we’ve launched with Russia, Japan, the Europeans and we’ve launched with SpaceX.”
From fledgling satellite programme to Mars mission
When Mr Al Marri was growing up in the Emirates in the 1980s there was no national space programme to join, yet alone help to lead.
He worked in telecoms after graduating from university in 2003, around the same time as the idea for a space centre began to take off.
Two years later, 23-year-old Mr Al Marri became one of only four other engineers who were hand-picked by the government to work on the UAE’s first satellite, DubaiSat-1.
It was the start of a momentous journey for Mr Al Marri, with some distance still to travel.
“Back then, there wasn’t a Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre — it was more of just ‘let’s build satellites',” said Mr Al Marri, who graduated from the Dubai Men’s College with a bachelor's degree in business information technology.
“The idea was to develop a space programme and build it up from there.”
The satellite programme helped set up the Emirates Institution for Advanced Sciences and Technology in 2005, which would eventually become the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre nine years later, the organisation behind the UAE’s most successful space missions.
These include the UAE Astronaut Programme, the Hope Mars Mission, domestically built satellites and a coming Dh500 million Mars Science City.
Today, aged 39, and after 17 years of helping the space centre grow, Mr Al Marri is proud to be given the chance to lead it to even greater heights.
The distance learning plan
Spring break will be from March 8 - 19
Public school pupils will undergo distance learning from March 22 - April 2. School hours will be 8.30am to 1.30pm
Staff will be trained in distance learning programmes from March 15 - 19
Teaching hours will be 8am to 2pm during distance learning
Pupils will return to school for normal lessons from April 5
Dunki
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RESULT
Uruguay 3 Russia 0
Uruguay: Suárez (10'), Cheryshev (23' og), Cavani (90')
Russia: Smolnikov (Red card: 36')
Man of the match: Diego Godin (Uruguay)
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
Disturbing%20facts%20and%20figures
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About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
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What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
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Usain Bolt's time for the 100m at major championships
2008 Beijing Olympics 9.69 seconds
2009 Berlin World Championships 9.58
2011 Daegu World Championships Disqualified
2012 London Olympics 9.63
2013 Moscow World Championships 9.77
2015 Beijing World Championships 9.79
2016 Rio Olympics 9.81
2017 London World Championships 9.95
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (87')
Athletic Bilbao 1
Williams (14')
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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