The UAE Space Agency has announced a new AED3 billion ($820 million) fund for the country’s space sector, with initial plans to build satellites.
The new investment and development fund will support local and international companies who are playing a part in the country’s space engineering, sciences, and research applications – which already saw previous ambitious projects including the Mars mission.
“A long-term plan and programme for the development of the Emirates’ space sector is in place to create economic opportunities, new jobs and help to fund global partnerships and new leaders in technology, space sciences and engineering here in the UAE,” Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, the Emirati space agency’s chairwoman, said.
The fund will “actively encourage” collaboration between international and local companies, according to state news agency WAM.
Its first project will be to build a constellation of advanced imaging satellites, to be named Sirb, an Arabic term for a flock of birds. They will be used for environmental and land usage monitoring, data collection, and analysis.
“These small-scale satellites are more agile, faster to develop and more powerful – an indicator of the types of new generation systems that technology is now making possible,” Al Amari said, noting the satellite’s use of SAR (synthetic aperture radar) technology.
The first satellite will be launched in three years – with the rest of the program to finish in six years.
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