Wealthy Dubai on mission to Mars

The United Arab Emirates has ventured into a space program aimed at studying weather patterns on Mars.

Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

At no bigger than a people ­carrier, Dubai’s latest attempt to capture the world’s attention lacks the stature of the tallest building or the artificial islands shaped like countries.

However, when a spaceship named Hope arrived in the city on Monday on the first leg of a mission to Mars, it raised the same questions as those previous mega-projects. Is the United Arab Emirates merely suitably ambitious, befitting its status as one of the world’s richest countries? Is it touched by megalomania? Or is it, as some people think, slightly crazy?

The spacecraft, which will orbit Mars to study the planet’s weather, is due at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre for final testing before its planned launch from Japan later this year, an event that would add the UAE to a short list of much ­larger powers that have explored the red planet.

It also will form a different attempt­ to impress the world. While tall buildings require a ­desire to build big and the cash to hire architects and an army of cheap labour, space travel ­requires the sort of advanced skills less associated with the UAE since its founding in 1971.

“The UAE’s first 50 years was about infrastructure,” Sarah al-Amiri, the science minister overseeing the project, said. “The next 50 require a change in mindset.”

The space program is the brainchild of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and a pioneer of the “build it and they will come” philosophy. It was he who decided the UAE should build its own satellites and then, six years ago, should send a craft to Mars.

There is method behind the madness, according to Ms Amiri and Omran Sharaf, 36, the project head. From the outset, the space program had two motives: to put the UAE on the map, but also to encourage scientific development in a part of the world known primarily for a mixture of religion and hedonism.

The first recruits for the space centre were three engineering graduates, who were sent to South Korea in 2006. Since then, one of its problems has been finding graduates to work on the program. Many parents prefer their children to train for more “practical” careers.

Mr Sharaf, one of the students who went to South Korea in 2006, said he hoped the Mars mission would help to change attitudes. “We have a region with 100 million youth,” he said. “The message is that if we can reach Mars in 50 years, we can also do so much more.”

The Times