UAE satellite captures perfect full Moon shots

High-resolution images lauded as national success

DUBAI // It is a view that we can see with our own eyes, but the images beamed back from DubaiSat-2, orbiting 600 kilometres above Earth, have painted more than just another planetary picture.

The crystal-clear images captured by the satellite of the full Moon are being celebrated as the latest success of the UAE’s space programme at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

Built by the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology under an agreement with the Korean manufacturer Satrec Initiative, the Earth observation satellite has sent back a clear, high- definition photo of the Moon to illustrate its versatility.

The satellite provides high- quality images to several institutions in the UAE and internationally for urban planning and mapping, monitoring environmental changes and the effects of natural and manmade disasters.

Yousuf Al Shaibani, director general of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, said: “It is a measure of our achievement at MBRSC that the DubaiSat-2, which was essentially designed to take photographs of the Earth from space, captured an image of the full Moon.

“We are increasingly proud of the team of engineers at MBRSC who so often prove their innovative capabilities in the design and use of the satellite.”

The satellite’s optical camera has a one-metre panchromatic resolution and a four-metre multispectral resolution. It can store 512 images, each 12km by 12km in size.

The DubaiSat- 2 launched in 2013 from the Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia.