WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates has released latest details about its planned mission to the primary asteroid belt, one which is comparable to an ongoing NASA mission.
The UAE Space Agency said its Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) is scheduled to launch in March 2028, flying by six asteroids within the primary asteroid belt before arriving at a seventh asteroid in 2034.
“EMA is a key component of the UAE National Space Strategy and has one overriding goal: the creation of viable and rewarding employment opportunities for young Emiratis for generations to come back,” Sarah Al Amiri, chair of the UAE Space Agency, said in a press release.
The EMA spacecraft, called MBR Explorer after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the UAE, will weigh nearly 2,300 kilograms at launch and carry 4 instruments from American and Italian partners. The agency said that greater than 50% of the “overall contracted mission” might be developed by UAE firms, but listed only satellite operator Yahsat within the announcement.
The UAE Space Agency had previously stated it planned to develop an asteroid mission as a successor to the $200 million Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), a Mars orbiter also generally known as Hope that launched in 2020 and stays operational today. The May 29 announcement provided essentially the most details thus far in regards to the planned mission and its partners.
Notaby absent from the announcement, though, was the estimated cost of EMA. A spokesperson representing the UAE Space Agency didn’t reply to questions on the mission, including its cost.
The MBR Explorer spacecraft bears a resemblance to NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, launched in October 2021 on a mission to fly by two primary belt asteroids and several other Trojan asteroids that lead and follow Jupiter in its orbit across the sun. The Lucy mission has a complete cost, including launch and operations, of nearly $1 billion.
That similarity includes using large circular solar panels to supply power. Lucy’s arrays, 7.3 meters in diameter and built by Northrop Grumman, give the spacecraft a length of nearly 16 meters. The UAE Space Agency didn’t disclose the scale of the arrays or their manufacturer, but noted that when deployed the spacecraft might be 16 meters long.
EMA can have a narrow launch period of just three weeks in March 2028 to perform the mission. It’s going to fly by Venus in July 2028 and Earth in May 2029 before going by the primary belt asteroids Westerwald, Chimaera and Rockox between February 2030 and January 2031. A Mars gravity assist in September 2031 would arrange three more asteroid flybys, of 2000 VA28, 1998 RC76 and 1999 SG6, between July 2032 and August 2033.
The mission will conclude by rendezvousing with a seventh primary belt asteroid, Justitia, in October 2034. It’s going to remain there no less than through May 2035, when it would release a lander to the touch down on the surface. The UAE Space Agency said the lander will come from “an Emirati private space sector startup” but didn’t disclose the name of that company or other details in regards to the lander.
The mission has several scientific objectives, with the first one to review the origin and evolution of water-rich asteroids. Planetary scientists suspect that Justitia, which is unusually red, can have formed within the outer solar system and later migrated into the primary belt.
“As with EMM, novel science and an open contribution of our science data to the worldwide community without embargo are vital points of EMA,” said Hoor Al Mazmi, leader of the science team of EMA, in a press release.
The mission will work with several universities and organizations within the UAE and elsewhere. The University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmopsheric and Space Physics might be the “knowledge transfer partner” on EMA, a job it also had with the Hope Mars orbiter where it supported assembly and testing of the spacecraft. The UAE Space Agency said it has not chosen a launch provider for the mission.
