UAE asteroid mission: Space Agency calls on private sector to participate, director says

Through the upcoming ‘Space Means Business,’ campaign, the UAE Space Agency will allow private sector companies, start-ups and entrepreneurs to be part of the mission.

The campaign is aimed at highlighting “the opportunities represented by the sector at both the local and global levels,” Al Awadhi said.

He added: “The market for space systems, engineering, design and data is estimated as a trillion-dollar opportunity and we believe this to be an under-estimate for the transformative nature of this critical sector.

“From location services through logistics and supply chain management to big data economic analysis, space systems are disrupting markets around the world and that disruption is almost entirely a private sector-led process.”

Through the UAE National Space Strategy, which supports the provision of start-up and investment funds, over 50 percent of the overall contracted mission will be developed by private space sector partners.

This will further lead to the creation of new start-ups, local and international partnerships, and economic opportunities, Al Awadhi explained.

Those interested can find out more from the Emirates Space Agency or email them directly.

In addition, the UAE Space Fund will offer incentives to international companies with UAE-based operations.

“We also offer talent a safe, secure, stable, and tax-free environment, with world-leading healthcare, education, leisure, and business facilities – and businesses benefit from the world’s most international communications, logistics and supply chain,” he said, adding that these factors allow international businesses to “use the Emirates as a base to tap into the fast-growing, trillion-dollar opportunity that the global space sector represents.”

What is the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA)?

EMA is the first multiple-asteroid tour and landing mission to the Asteroid Belt. Part of the UAE National Space Strategy, the mission is a “major UAE business development opportunity,” Al Awadhi said, adding that this would further enable the “long-term development of the private space sector.”

Al Awadhi said that this could be done through “knowledge sharing and commercial partnerships” between Emirati space sector companies, educational institutions, and scientists.

“EMA has one over-riding goal – the creation of viable and rewarding employment opportunities for talented young Emiratis for generations to come,” Al Awadhi explained, adding that “mission operations will be UAE-based and delivered by an Emirati private sector company, as will the lander being developed as part of the mission.”

EMA ‘five times more challenging’ than the Emirates Mars Mission

The EMA is “highly challenging across a number of areas,” Al Awadhi said, starting from the complexity of the mission plan and spacecraft design through to the delivery of an overall mission, which is “at least five times more challenging than the Emirates Mars Mission,” he added.

However, the foundation of a ‘National Team’ poses as a challenge as well in terms of delivering the mission.

The National Team comprises of private sector entrepreneurs, existing private space sector players both in the UAE and globally and several partners in the Emirate’s academic sector, Al Awadhi explained.

“The combination of UAE-based research and innovation, the Space Academy technology transfer programme and the Space Economic Zones start-up programme are all funded by the UAE Space Fund, some AED3 billion of investment dedicated to driving the UAE private space sector – that challenge is one we are not only willingly taken on but exhilarated to meet, because it’s creating even more disruption and driving diverse and sometimes wholly unexpected new opportunities for growth and development. That’s really where the ultimate challenge lies,” he said.