UAE’s most advanced imaging satellite to be launched in 2018
The UAE has been working in the space industry for a decade now since the establishment of the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) in 2006. In this arena, 10 years may be a short time, but it’s enough to allow the country to launch two Earth observation satellites, DubaiSat1 and DubaiSat2.
“In terms of space, 10 years is quite a short time for a country to be working in this field, but if you look at the last 10 years, these are very large achievements for a small country in that small timeframe. This is something that we are very proud of,” Salem Humaid Al Merri, Assistant Director at MBRSC, said.
The centre has now started the development of the flight model of its third satellite, KhalifaSat, the UAE’s most technologically advanced imaging satellite, which is due for launch in 2018. “First, we will make a prototype and when we find that the systems work, we will go and build the actual flight model. KhalifaSat is a result of previous missions, but it is also building up for the next missions,” Amer Al Sayegh, project manager of KhalifaSat, said. The previous missions, DubaiSat1 and DubaiSat2, have greatly benefited the UAE. The centre provides free satellite images and data to government agencies such as the Dubai Land Department for urban planning and monitoring programmes.
Cost-saving exercise
“They have said that the images save them a lot of time surveying some areas instead of sending the whole crew and their equipment to that site to survey the area. So it saves a lot of cost and time,” Al Sayegh said.
KhalifaSat, which is 100 per cent developed by Emirati engineers, represents the full cycle of the centre’s third strategy in 10 years — selfdevelopment of spacecraft. The first two are knowledge and technology transfer, which
mainly happened in South Korea when the centre started, and joint development of satellites where Emirati engineers collaborated with its international partners for the DubaiSat2. Mohammad Al Sahoul, a mechanical engineer, worked on DubaiSat2 in South Korea and was tasked to transfer the knowledge he learnt there to his colleagues in the UAE. He is also responsible for designing the structure of the KhalifaSat satellite and assembling it. “I feel very proud to bring back this know-how here and to build the KhalifaSat in the UAE, the first to be designed and built here,” Al Sahoul, 29, said. Maitha Ahmad Sharif, 24, an electrical engineer who joined the KhalifaSat programme 10 months ago, is equally proud although work could be pretty challenging.
She said: “You have closed labs, small equipment and high and accurate programmes to work with for designing and while it is challenging, it is also rewarding.”
Huge potential
Sharif’s interest shifted from pursuing renewable energy to space science after she designed her first cube satellite while in university. She said many of her peers are considering entering the field.
“In space, there are many things to experience and explore and there’s a huge scope for people to invent and test their invention in what they did or study in,” she said.
This space for people can be an avenue for Arab contributions to excel again in a field in which they were once major players, Omran Sharaf said.
“The message of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad to the youth of this region — we’re talking about a region that has more than 200 million youth with a lot of potential, a lot of abilities, and a lot of energy and opportunities — is that basically, if the UAE, a small nation, is able to reach Mars in less than 50 years, then you guys can do much more.”
When I was a kid, we used to go to the Emirates Macaroni factory; these were fields trips we used to take. The field trips that these kids are taking now are to this space centre.” Salem Humaid Al Merri | Assistant Director at MBRSC This is a milestone because you are preparing future scientists to use data that has never been provided before. You need to have people who already know how to use it.” Omran Sharaf | Project Manager of the UAE Mars Mission