Emirati engineers are set to begin building the MBR Explorer after the spacecraft's design received its final approval — a landmark milestone for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) that clears the way for full assembly, integration, and testing ahead of a planned 2028 launch.
What the MBR Explorer Will Do
The MBR Explorer, weighing 2,300 kg, will travel five billion kilometres on a seven-year mission to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will conduct close flybys of six asteroids before deploying a lander on a seventh — the asteroid Justitia — in 2035.
The mission is designed to deepen understanding of the early solar system. Data gathered from the asteroid belt could shed light on how water and organic materials were distributed across the inner solar system billions of years ago.
Spacecraft Design and Propulsion
The MBR Explorer will be fitted with 16-metre solar arrays and will use electric propulsion to traverse deep space at speeds of up to 33,000 kph. To reach the asteroid belt efficiently, the spacecraft will use gravitational assists from Venus, Mars, and Earth, allowing mission planners to conserve propellant and fine-tune the trajectory.
One of the craft's most demanding engineering challenges is thermal management. As lead engineer Mohammed Omran Alameri explained, the spacecraft must survive extreme temperature swings: scorching heat during a Venus flyby and the deep cold of the outer asteroid belt. "The Venus gravity itself — it's imposed a lot of thermal constraints," Alameri noted.
International Partnerships
The UAE Space Agency is not working alone. The EMA mission draws on expertise from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University, and the Italian Space Agency. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard a Japanese H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center.
Approximately 50 per cent of the mission's work has been allocated to UAE-based private sector companies, underlining the government's goal of building a domestic space industry alongside its scientific ambitions.
A Giant Leap Beyond the Hope Probe
The MBR Explorer represents a significant step up in ambition from the UAE's first deep-space venture, the Hope Probe, which entered Mars orbit in February 2021. Where the Hope Probe was primarily an orbiter conducting atmospheric studies, the EMA mission will involve active manoeuvrability between multiple targets and an attempted asteroid landing — capabilities that place the UAE among a very small group of space agencies worldwide to have attempted such a mission profile.
With the critical design review now complete, Emirati engineers move into the most intensive phase of the programme: physically building and testing the spacecraft that will carry UAE science to the solar system's main belt.
