2023-05-29 14:03:19
MADRID, 29 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Arab Emirates Space Agency mission to the asteroid belt will launch in 2028 and It will land on an asteroid in 2033.
The project will last 13 years –6 years for development and 7 years for a voyage of exploration– during which the MBR Explorer spacecraft will travel 5 billion kilometers bypassing Mars to explore 7 asteroids and land on the last asteroid in 2034. The vehicle will travel 10 times more than the Hope probe orbiting Mars.
After passing six asteroids, the mission aims to land on the Justitia asteroid (about 50 kilometers in diameter) in 2034 with a small lander to be deployed from MBR Explorer. Justitia can have organic molecules on its surface; Organics are the building blocks of complex molecules that could form life under the right circumstances.
More broadly, scientists search for water and organic matter throughout the solar system to better understand how life arose on Earth. That quest can be especially significant in Justitia, which may have formed closer to our planet and then migrated to its current position in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupitersay the scientists.
The remainder of the mission manifest includes flybys of asteroids (10254) Westerwald, (623) Chimaera, (13294) Rockox; (88055) 2000 VA28, (23871) 1998 RC76 and (59980) 1999 SG6, all intended to represent “different classes of asteroids with varying types of composition,” UAE Space Agency officials said in a statement, quoted by Space.com. Justitia and Chimaera are around 50 kilometers across, and the remaining asteroids are less than 10 km wide each.
The United Arab Emirates project to explore the asteroid belt will include the establishment of private Emirati companies in space technology, the establishment of a ground control center for deep space missions, and the training of new Emirati cadres in this sector, as highlighted on his Twitter account The Vice President and Prime Minister of the Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoumbin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Four scientific instruments have been announced to investigate the geology, composition, and structure of asteroids: a high-resolution camera, a thermal infrared camera, a medium-wavelength spectrometer, and an infrared spectrometer.
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