The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to send a probe to land on an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter to collect data on the origin of the universe, the latest project of the country’s ambitious space program.
The project aims to launch in 2028 with a landing in 2033, a five-year voyage in which the spacecraft will travel approximately 3.6 billion kilometers.
The UAE Space Agency has said it will partner with the University of Colorado’s Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences and Physics on this project.
The project comes after Emirates successfully launched the Amal probe into Mars orbit in February. The car-sized Amal cost $ 200 million to build and launch. This eliminates operating costs on Mars itself.
The Emirates are planning to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024. The country also set an ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.
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