UAE space industry on track

The UAE Space Agency outlined the tremendous business opportunities in space exploration, scientific research and its potential to advance economic growth and human progress at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Sarah Bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency said the UAE’s space industry can become a key driver of economic growth and prosperity for the next 50 years. Delivering a keynote speech at the Space Business Forum, Al Amiri said her overriding objective was to ensure the UAE becomes a global player in the space industry.

In this endeavour, the UAE Space Agency will work more closely with the private sector to ensure startups, entrepreneurs and new companies have the opportunity to enter the race to space. It will deepen collaboration and cooperation with local and global stakeholders to make the industry more accessible and create an attractive and competitive ecosystem that encourages business innovation.

Sarah Al Amiri said: “From the future of travel and the next frontier of business innovation to creating an environment that encourages sustainable growth, space represents the next frontier of innovation. Our mission to explore Venus and the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars will serve as a catalyst for progress and an opportunity to transfer knowledge to the private sector.

It will support the creation of new Emirati aerospace companies and contribute to the growth of a competitive and attractive ecosystem to consolidate the UAE space industry’s status a global player.

We will work hand-in-hand with the private sector to ensure scientific and technical expertise from our interplanetary missions is accessible, whilst simultaneously creating a robust regulatory and business framework to consolidate our innovation-driven economy.”

The Space Business Forum welcomed business leaders, astronauts, cosmonauts, entrepreneurs, investors, innovators and government leaders from around the world to explore a central thematic question: how do we safely and productively explore new frontiers? It provided an opportunity to discuss pressing issues such as the future of space travel, the next frontier of business innovation, the growing need to commercialize space applications and technologies, using satellites to monitor climate change and conservation, enabling space explorers of tomorrow, and role space innovation plays in our day-to-day lives.

UAE Hungary cooperation: The UAE Space Agency held bilateral talks with the Hungary delegation to tighten cooperation in the growing global space industry by boosting spatial research and astronautic activities.

Salem Butti Salem Al Qubaisi, Director-General of the UAE Space Agency, met a high-ranking delegation of senior officials from Hungary Dr Dr Orsolya Ferencz, Ministerial commissioner for Space Research at MOFA and Trade of Hungary to create closer ties in space research, Earth surveillance, technology utilization and knowledge transfer. The meeting took place in the Hungary Pavilion during Expo 2020 Dubai’s Space Week, held in association with the UAE Space Agency.

The pair discussed a wide range of issues including Hungary’s ambition to send an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024, the European country’s plan to launch a scientific satellite into space and develop an onboard measurement system that will be installed on the ISS.

They also discussed the UAE’s new mission to explore Venus and the Asteroid Belt between Jupiter and Mars. The new interplanetary mission — five times more complex than the Emirates Mars Mission — is scheduled to launch in 2028 and will carry out its scientific mission for five consecutive years.

The Asteroid Belt is a torus-shaped region in the solar system believed to have been formed more than four billion years ago. It includes a galactic trove of valuable objectives, including small spatial rocks to massive asteroids that are one third the size of the Moon.

Salem Butti Salem Al Qubaisi explained that the new mission will support the creation of Emirati aerospace companies, develop new talent and enhance cooperation with global research centres as part of the UAE’s vision to promote growth and human progress for the next 50 years.

UAE, Estonia expand collaboration: The UAE Space Agency has held high-level bilateral talks with a delegation of senior government and business officials from the Republic of Estonia to accelerate collaboration and the transfer of space-related technologies and services.

Salem Butti Salem Al Qubaisi, Director-General of the UAE Space Agency, met with Kristi Talving, Deputy Secretary General for Business and Consumer Environment at Estonia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications at the Estonia Pavilion.

Taking place on the sidelines of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Space Week, held in association with the UAE Space Agency, the meeting explored the potential for greater collaboration in all space-related fields. This included opportunities to strengthen ties across science, technology, engineering and mathematics and facilitating new growth partnerships between the public and private sector with the aim of driving forward economic growth and human progress.

Salem Butti Salem Al Qubais said: “Estonia and the UAE have an important bilateral relationship that is taking on a new dimension as we enhance collaboration in all space-related fields. There are great opportunities for enhanced cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, the fourth industrial revolution, outer space research, satellite production and the expansion of entrepreneurship and private enterprise. Our meeting provided a constructive platform to build on our shared ties as we create a competitive, innovation-driven economy for the next 50 years.”

Estonia and the UAE have enjoyed meteoric success in the space arena in recent years. Estonia, a full member of the European Space Agency since 2015, took a giant leap forward in the industry this year. On the 11 January 2021, it was announced that Estonia would provide stereo cameras to Maxar Technologies for NASA’s Artemis lunar programme. The cameras will provide an important part of a major new mission to send humans back to the Moon in 2024 and one day establish a lunar settlement.

For its part, the UAE recently announced a new mission to explore Venus and an asteroid belt between Venus and Mars. Scheduled to launch in 2028, the 3.6-billion-kilometre journey into deep space will test the scientific and technical capabilities of the UAE more than ever before and is one of the country’s new Projects of the 50 - a series of economic and development initiatives for social and economic transformation.Gulf Today, Staff Reporter