UAE targets mission to Mars following KhalifaSat success


Patrick Ryan
  • English
  • Arabic

The successful launch of KhalifaSat last week is proof that the UAE’s Mars probe mission is on track, the satellite's project manager said.

Amer Al Sayegh from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, was speaking at an event to celebrate the launch of the first satellite to be completely manufactured in the UAE.

He said that the team will now turn its sights on the Mars Hope Probe project with even more confidence that it will be successfully delivered on time.

The Mars Hope Probe mission is a space exploration mission to Mars, which is expected to launch in 2020 and arrive on Mars in 2021. If it stays to schedule, its arrival will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the UAE the same year.

Mr Al Sayegh did not want to divulge any more information about the project at this stage.

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Read more:

What is next for KhalifaSat?

UAE rulers hail unprecedented Emirati achievement

Former Nasa chief: UAE's space programme is helping humanity

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At the event, which was held at the MBRSC on Monday, the first image taken by KhalifaSat and sent to the Dubai-based headquarters was shown to members of the press.

The image was of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, but it will be early 2019 before members of the public will be given the chance to see pictures taken by the satellite. The team said that this was to allow them time to make sure they are of "sufficiently high standard".

The role of KhalifaSat is yet to be determined, although a high-ranking official said that it would not be suitable for use as a military service tool.

“That is not what we built it for," said Ammar Al Muhairi, manager of the image processing section at MBRSC.

"It is more for helping with climate change and disasters such as oil spills, forest fires and earthquakes.

KhalifaSat was launched into space from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan on October 29, a feat that was described as “an unheralded Emirati achievement” by UAE leaders.

Sheikh Zayed's poem

When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.

Your love is ruling over my heart

Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it

Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home

You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness

Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins

You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge

You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm

Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you

You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it

Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by. 

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  • Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
VEZEETA PROFILE

Date started: 2012

Founder: Amir Barsoum

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: HealthTech / MedTech

Size: 300 employees

Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)

Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC

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