UAE Announces Plans for a Mission to Mars in 7 Years

[Blackwell Stith]

UAE Announces Plans for a Mission to Mars in 7 Years

The world's overall success rate in Mars missions is less than 50-50, but the UAE intends to beat those odds.

The United Arab Emirates announced plans Wednesday to send the first unmanned Arab spaceship to Mars in 2021. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of the UAE's emirate of Dubai, said the mission would prove the Arab world is still capable of delivering scientific contributions to humanity, despite the many conflicts across the Middle East.

For years, the UAE has been pushing Arab League nations to create a pan-Arab space agency similar to the European Space Agency. "Our region is a region of civilization. Our destiny is, once again, to explore, to create, to build and to civilize," said Al Maktoum.

The UAE said that its unmanned probe would take nine months and cross more than 37 million miles (60 million kilometers) on its journey to Mars. If this mission were to be a success, it would make the emirates one of only nine countries with space programs to attempt to explore the red planet. The government neglected to say how much the program is expected to cost, but said the space agency would report to the Cabinet and be financially and administratively independent otherwise.

Comprised of seven emirates, the UAE said that its investments in space technologies already exceed 20 billion dirham, or roughly $5.4 billion. The figure includes investments in satellite data, mobile satellite communications and earth mapping and observation. A formal Cabinet statement said the space technologies industry is estimated to be worth around $300 billion globally, and is increasingly important to the security of nations.
Al Maktoum said his country chose the epic challenge of reaching Mars because it inspires and motivates. "The moment we stop taking on such challenges is the moment we stop moving forward," he said.
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Source: ABC News [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/uae-plans-arab-spaceship-mars-years-24585650]

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[Remus]

Ahhhh such nievity. I remember when we Americans used to talk like that. Then NASA was defunded, the shuttles retired, and now we have to hitchhike on Russian rockets to reach the ISS. So if SpaceX reaches Mars before the UAE, are we technically still in the space race or have we passed the baton to capitalism?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Sometimes I wish we still had a Cold War. At least we'd be competing at research and development of space exploration technologies. Which tends to lead to discovery of other technologies that benefit mankind.

 

[PhantomEcho]

I wish all the good fortune in the world to the UAE in their attempts to reach Mars.

It's good to see that there still exists, somewhere in this world, the drive to explore, understand, and build out beyond the boundaries of our singular globe. I wish that such a fiery passion still raged on in the hearts of my fellow Americans, but it seems that recent polls suggest that our idiot population can't figure out why the hell 'space exploration is important'.

Just a little thing called 'the continued existence of our species.' folks.

 

[bz316]

This is cool. I had no idea the UAE had a Space Program advanced enough to send probes to Mars. More power to 'em I say!

 

[JoJo]

Well good luck UAE, they've certainly got the spare cash. Any chance you can start thinking about sending a man there too next, might pump up some certain people in the West to fund our own manned mission there to beat the commies, sorry I meant Muslims. Feel free to get in on the fun too China, the more the merrier.

 

[leffi3]

Just a little thing called 'the continued existence of our species.' folks.

This! Somehow the general public (in any country) fails to understand this very point! It's sad.

 

[Brian Tams]

I still maintain today that the defunding of NASA was a horrendously stupid idea. Space exploration is important, not just for learning about the universe, but because it fuels our evolution as a species and represents humankind's greatest singular achievement.

For the US to flush it all down the toilet was dumb-dumb-dumb. I wish the UAE and all other countries that wish to follow suit gobs of luck in their pursuit.

 

[Darks63]

I wish all the good fortune in the world to the UAE in their attempts to reach Mars.

It's good to see that there still exists, somewhere in this world, the drive to explore, understand, and build out beyond the boundaries of our singular globe. I wish that such a fiery passion still raged on in the hearts of my fellow Americans, but it seems that recent polls suggest that our idiot population can't figure out why the hell 'space exploration is important'.

Just a little thing called 'the continued existence of our species.' folks.

It is rather depressing how we(the US) after the 50's became the leaders in space technology and now we are being passed by half baked reality shows and countries that are 1/20 our size.

I would have thought in my youth that we would be preparing to terraform Mars and/or pushing outside our native solar system at this point with manned scouts.

 

[youji itami]

I would have thought in my youth that we would be preparing to terraform Mars and/or pushing outside our native solar system at this point with manned scouts.

I don't think sending corpses to the edge of our solar system would be very scientifically useful.

 

[Vivi22]

Ahhhh such nievity. I remember when we Americans used to talk like that.

Naive or not, they are richer than god and that combined with science has achieved more surprising feats in as little time.

 

[Yabba]

Well good luck UAE, they've certainly got the spare cash. Any chance you can start thinking about sending a man there too next, might pump up some certain people in the West to fund our own manned mission there to beat the commies, sorry I meant Muslims. Feel free to get in on the fun too China, the more the merrier.

Hell, why doesn't Russia join in again and the European Union just hop in, make this ride alot more fun

 

[Vigormortis]

At first glance I thought it said, "UAC Announces Plans for a Mission to Mars in 7 Years"

To which I then thought, "Oh no... It begins!"

Spoiler

Anyway, on topic:
Good for them, I guess? Unmanned probes are nice and all but at this point the real challenge is to get real people on the ground.

Even so, it's good to have competition(?) in the space-faring game. God knows NASA could use a few new excuses to convince the US government to buff up their budget again. Because, you know, exploration, materials science, expansion of knowledge, and medical science, etc, certainly aren't enough to warrant funding NASA...

 

[Vie]

Hell, why doesn't Russia join in again and the European Union just hop in, make this ride alot more fun

EU, sure the ESA is perfectly capable of doing Mars missions - several member states could probably handle a basic probe independently at this stage.

Russia? Not so much. The country is basically bankrupt, and their space agency hasn't made an unmanned probe in... ..decades? They just don't have the R&D capacity to develop modern grade probes as things stand, though they could do something big and dumb using old tech - if they had the money.

Now, Japan or China could probably both give it a try. Japan has better tech, but China would have more money.

 

[The Great JT]

Good job, UAE. Keep up the good science!

 

[bfgmetalhead]

Don't let the Arabians go to Mars.... At least not yet, they are still very religious. That failure of a creation needs to stay here and die, don't it spread to other planets. At least they are thinking about I suppose, maybe they are losing their religion?

 

[Nurb]

Baby-steps. Try the moon first...

 

[Dragonlayer]

Don't let the Arabians go to Mars.... At least not yet, they are still very religious. That failure of a creation needs to stay here and die, don't it spread to other planets. At least they are thinking about I suppose, maybe they are losing their religion?

Its an unmanned probe, not a fucking Jihadi fleet.

OT

I knew they were rich, but not that rich: it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[Sean951]

I see a lot of people lamenting the US space program and how we are being surpassed... Really? We landed an atomic rover armed with lasers on the surface of Mars 2 years ago using a rocket powered sky crane. We're so far ahead in the probe department it's not even funny at this point. Not to mention, the Orion craft will begin manned tests in 2018. The Orion, by the way, was designed with Mars in mind and might actually go there.

 

[ungothicdove]

It'd be great if we competed as a species to make scientific discoveries instead of killing each other. I know it's impossible not to have conflict when a lot of people share the same space, but it would be nice if we could get over ourselves and not kill other people because we don't like what they're doing. I'm not judging any one country, there are dicks every where.