The UAE’s achievements in the space sector will receive another boost as it launches the MeznSat satellite on a Russian Soyuz rocket soon, WAM reported.

MeznSat is among the satellites owned and operated by the UAE. According to the UAE Space Agency, MeznSat is being developed by young Emirati citizens from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi and the American University in Ras Al Khaimah, who will also monitor and analyse data sent to the mainland station at the YahSat lab in Khalifa University and the sub-land station at American University.

During the project’s announcement, Dr. Eng. Mohammed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director-General of the Agency, stressed that MeznSat will play a key role in analysing the atmosphere and providing information and photos that will help understand many issues facing our planet.

Satellites so far

The nation has been successfully making efforts to develop satellites for the past one decade, with the participation of many talented young UAE nationals, and in partnership with local and international entities.

The UAE owns many high-capacity satellites. The first was ‘DubaiSat-1’ launched in 2008 by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre to monitor climate change.

In 2013, DubaiSat-2 was launched for observation and monitoring purposes. Emirati engineers from the MBRSC contributed to its development.

Yah-1 satellite, launched by the Al Yah Satellite Communications Company in 2011, had objectives such as broadcasting TV programmes and providing other commercial services for 62 million viewers.

In 2012, Yah-2 was launched to provide YahClick satellite internet services to various corporations and individuals in the Middle East, African, and Central and Southwest Asia.

In 2018 came Yah-3 to offer equivalent services in South America and West Africa.

Nayif-1 was the first nano-metric satellite and the first ‘CubeSat’ Emirati educational satellite, which was launched in 2017 from India for educational purposes. It was developed by a group of students from the American University of Sharjah and the MBRSC.

‘KhalifaSat’, launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan in October 2018, was the first satellite to be completely developed and manufactured in the UAE.

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“The first satellite will be launched in 2021 and the second – a technologically enhanced one – the following year,” said Dr. Khaled Al Hashmi, Director of the National Space Science and Technology Centre (NSSTC) at the UAE University in Al Ain. The NSSTC was jointly established by the university along with the UAE Space Agency and the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ICT-Fund).

Navigation satellites offer positioning signals for navigation functions in car navigation systems and smartphones. They use signals from satellites for satellite positioning services to help detect someone’s current location. These services are also used for surveying and disaster prevention.

The navigation satellite will be the first project of Satellite Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT) Centre, a collaboration formed by Tawazun Economic Council with Airbus and the NSSTC. The satellite project is funded by the UAE Space Agency.

The new satellite is not aimed at replacing any existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) but can be used as a substitute if one existing system does not work, he clarified. It can also be used for purposes such as deploying drones.

Right now, there are four GNSS – Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, GLONASS of Russia, Galileo of the European Union and BeiDou of China. There are also two regional systems – the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), of Japan and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), later given the operational name Navigation with Indian Constellation or NavIC.
The UAE’s Mars Mission, Hope Probe, contributed to the establishment of the AIT Centre, the official said.
The second project of the AIT Centre is the development of 813, the Arab Satellite, an initiative announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

The first phase called the mission concept is complete, Al Hashmi said. The team will soon move to the second phase and has constituted a local team; next task is selecting partners from other Arab countries participating in the project, he revealed.
The UAE initiated the creation of the first Arab Space Coordination Group in 2019 along with 10 Arab nations to develop 813, an advanced satellite funded by the UAE Space Agency to monitor earth, environment and climate. The name 813 refers to the date that marked the beginning of prosperity for the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under the reign of Al-Ma’mun.

The new satellite will be designed and manufactured by Arab engineers from countries that have signed the charter for the launch. The 11 countries are the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco and Egypt. The member countries voted for the UAE to lead the new organisation.

The satellite that will be launched in 2024 will be the first in the region to collect atmospheric data on climate change. The collected data will be shared with other universities and institutions in the Arab world, he explained.

Meanwhile, the Hope Probe, which took off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre on July 20, is staying healthy on its course and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai is receiving signals as per the expectations, the official revealed.

Space missions will raise hopes about future of science and technology in the county and region, Al Hashmi said.

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