The United Arab Emirates has released new details of its planned mission to the main asteroid belt, similar to NASA’s current mission. The UAE Space Agency has announced that Emirates’ Asteroid Belt (EMA) mission is scheduled for March 2028, passing through six asteroids in the main asteroid belt before arriving at the seventh asteroid in 2034.

Sarah Al Amiri, head of the UAE Space Agency, said, “The EMA is a key component of the UAE’s national space strategy and has one main goal: to create viable and rewarding employment opportunities for young Emiratis for future generations,” according to Spacenews.

EMA’s spacecraft, named MBR Explorer, named after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE, will weigh around 2,300 kilograms when launched and will carry four instruments from American and Italian partners. The agency said more than 50 percent of the “total contract mission” will be developed by UAE companies, but the statement only identifies satellite operator Yahsat.

The UAE space agency had previously announced plans to develop an asteroid mission as the successor to the $200 million Emirati Mars Mission (EMM), the Mars rover also known as Nadia, which launched in 2020 and continues today. The May 29 announcement provided the most details about the planned mission and its partners.

However, the announcement did not mention the estimated cost of the EMA. A representative from the UAE Space Agency did not respond to questions about the mission, including its cost. The MBR Explorer spacecraft, similar to NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, was launched in October 2021 on a mission to fly by two main belt asteroids and several Trojan asteroids that orbit and follow Jupiter in their orbit around the Sun. The total cost of the Lucy mission, including launch and operation, is approximately $1 billion.

This similarity involves using large circular solar panels to provide electricity. The spacecraft is about 16 meters long, thanks to Northrop Grumman’s 7.3-metre-diameter Lucy arrays. The UAE Space Agency has not disclosed the size or manufacturers of the arrays, but states that the spacecraft will be 16 meters long when deployed.

The EMA will only have a narrow three-week launch period in March 2028 to complete the mission. Between February 2030 and January 2031, it will pass by Venus in July 2028 and Earth in May 2029, before passing through the main belt asteroids Westerwald, Chimera and Rocox. In September 2031, a Martian gravity assist will make the asteroid 2000 VA28 pass three more times. , 1998 RC76 and 1999 SG6, from July 2032 to August 2033.

The mission will end with a rendezvous with the seventh main belt asteroid Justicia in October 2034. It will remain there until at least May 2035, when it releases the lander to land on the surface. The UAE Space Agency said the launcher would be built by an “Emirati private space sector initiative”, but did not reveal the name of that company or other details about the launcher.

The mission has several scientific goals, primarily to study the origin and evolution of water-rich asteroids. Planetary scientists suspect that the extremely red Justitia may have formed in the outer Solar System and then migrated to the main belt.

Hoor Al Mazmi, head of EMA’s science group, said in a statement, “As with EMM, the clear contribution of our new science and scientific data to the global community without embargo are important aspects of EMA.” Said.

The Mission will work with various universities and organizations in the UAE and other countries. The University of Colorado’s Atmospheric and Space Physics Laboratory will be an “information transfer partner” for EMA, a role it also holds on the Hope Mars orbiter, where it supports spacecraft assembly and testing. The UAE Space Agency said it has not selected a launch vehicle supplier for the mission.