Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, emir of Dubai, announced Monday that the United Arab Emirates will conduct an exploration mission in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This mission, called the ‘Emirates Mission for the Asteroid Belt’ (EMA), will last 13 years and will include the development of a spacecraft.
The scientific project will consist of the development of the MBR Explorer spacecraft over the next six years, which will tentatively be sent in March 2028 towards the large cosmic rock corridor. During the MBR Explorer flight, which will last approximately seven years, close flybys will be conducted to make unique observations of seven main-belt asteroids.
The space probe’s route will cover about 5 billion kilometers and will include gravity-assisted maneuvers around Venus, Earth, and Mars to adjust its velocity and perform the planned flybys. The spacecraft’s first encounter with the approximately 2.2-kilometer-wide Westerwald asteroid is expected to occur in February 2030, which will provide a detailed look at its surface and insight into its interior density and structure.
The flybys will continue until October 2034, when MBR Explorer will reach the seventh and final asteroid called Justitia, where it will finally land. For seven months, the space probe will analyze Justitia’s composition using cameras and spectrometers to search for the presence of water. Justitia, one of two known reddish-colored asteroids, is believed to have formed in the outer reaches of the solar system and dispersed inward due to the changing orbits of the giant planets.
The mission aims to establish private companies specializing in space science and technology, develop a deep space mission control center, and train Emirati talents in the field of space exploration, Bin Rashid al Maktoum said.