UAE announces Probe targeting asteroid between Mars & Jupiter

October 7, 2021

United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced its plan to send a probe on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter for collecting data regarding origins of the universe.

Key Facts

If this mission is successful, UAE will join the elite club of the European Union, Japan and the United States. These countries have already completed its mission either an asteroid or a comet.
UAE’s mission would remain behind on the asteroid and transmit back the information regarding the composition of asteroid on the Earth.
Project will be launched in 2028 and will landing on asteroid in 2033.
During a five-year journey, spacecraft will travel around 3.6 billion kilometres.
It will need to slingshot first across Venus and then Earth for gathering enough speed to reach an asteroid located around 560 million kilometres away.

Partnering agency

Space Agency of UAE will partner with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics of University of Colorado to develop this project. Laboratory will offer a cost and describe what particular features of the asteroid to UAE’s space agency.

Background

This project was announced in the backdrop of first successful launch of “Hope probe” in orbit of Mars in February 2021. The car-size “Hope” mission was worth $200 million.