UAE to launch mission to explore Venus, land on asteroid

• Author: AARON REICH
• Published date: 11 October 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Tentatively set to launch in 2028 with a seven-year development time for the spacecraft, the mission will see the UAE explore the planet Venus, as well as seven asteroids, culminating in a planned landing on an asteroid itself in 2033 after a five-year journey, the Associated Press reported.

The announcement comes just one year after the successful Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), which was the culmination of six years of work and saw the Hope Probe arrive in the Martian orbit in February 2021. But according to UAE Space Agency chair Sara al-Amiri, this next mission is far more complicated.

"When we embarked on the Emirates Mars Mission, we took on a six-year task that was in the order of five times more complex than the earth observation satellites we were developing. This mission is in the order of five times more complex than EMM," she said in a statement, according to the Khaleej Times.

This new spacecraft will travel seven times the distance of the Hope Probe, with the journey stretching some 2.2 billion miles (3.6 billion kilometers) and, due to coming within 67 million miles (109 kilometers) of the Sun, will require it to have specialized thermal shielding, CNN reported.

The planned asteroid mission was lauded by UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahayan.

"The launch of a new project to explore Venus and the asteroid belt sets an ambitious new goal for our country's burgeoning space program," the crown prince tweeted.

"The UAE is determined to make a meaningful contribution to space exploration, scientific research and our understanding of the solar system."

The mission's potential to explore Venus was noted by some experts as having the potential to gain further understanding of one of Earth's closest neighbors, a planet so similar in size that NASA has noted its nickname as "Earth's twin," but whose overall climate and atmosphere are radically different.

The planet is mysterious, with NASA noting it as characterized by "a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it's perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect." The air pressure on the planet is intense and is 90 times greater than what can be experienced on the surface of the Earth - in fact, it is more comparable to the pressure found a mile under the ocean. It is also the...