Emirati Engineers Set to Build Spacecraft for Asteroid Exploration After Final Design Approval

Dubai’s Emirati engineers are set to build the MBR Explorer a spacecraft that is set to orbit the belt between Mars and Jupiter for seven years. This development comes as part of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA), which has recently achieved a major milestone: last permission on craft design.

MBR Explorer weighing 2,300 kg will be launched in 2028 to cover a distance of five billion kilometers, which will make it go around six asteroids before it drops a lander on the seventh. Its mission will provide useful information about the asteroid belt, and thus increase the current knowledge about the early solar system.

The vehicle will be able to maneuver itself with independent operations as it will travel from asteroid to asteroid at a speed of 33,000kph. The craft will be fitted with 16 metre solar arrays and use electric propulsion, with the gravitational assistance of Venus, Mars, and Earth helping to boost it along the way.

Its greatest difficulty will be in regulating its temperature as it cruises the temperature near Venus or the extremely cold climate in the asteroid belt. The UAE Space Agency has collaborated with some universities and other international organisation some of which include the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona University among others and Italian Space Agency among others that will enable the success of the mission.

The mission, with a planned landing on the asteroid Justitia in 2035, is a big step up from UAE’s previous Mars mission.