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Sarah al-Amiri has a simple answer.
“Because Mars is more difficult.
That way, more skills can be acquired, ”she says when asked why the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are sending their first major satellite mission to Mars and not to the neighboring moon.
Why step by step when it can also be done ambitiously and quickly?
The 33-year-old is responsible for the prestige project, in which a weather satellite has been flying towards Mars since July 2020.
Now it should arrive - and “so far everything is going according to plan”, says the State Minister for Higher Sciences of the Emirates.
She is confident that the project will be a success.
And this despite the fact that around 50 percent of the Mars missions fail.
This Tuesday, the engines will be ignited so that the "Hope" satellite can swing into orbit around the red planet.
It's a complex key maneuver.
If the mission succeeds, the Emirates would belong to the small group of five or six space agencies that have successfully carried out Mars missions.
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Probes have already been launched from the USA, the ex-Soviet Union, Europe and India.
There is currently a rush of visitors.
In addition to the weather satellite, a US satellite with a rover and, for the first time, a Chinese satellite with a rover are racing to Mars.
The UAE with ten million inhabitants and the well-known Emirate of Dubai are not only the smallest, but also the youngest player in the circle of space heavyweights.
It was not until 2014 that they founded their own space agency, although previously commissioned satellites had already been launched.
Next vanishing point for humanity
Because of its thin atmosphere and water ice, Mars is considered to be the next possible escape point for humanity.
The technology entrepreneur Elon Musk and his private company SpaceX are already striving to colonize the planet if one day the earth should no longer be habitable.
Musk plans to start a major unmanned mission to Mars in two years' time, and humans will land in four or six years.
Elon Musk's Mars rocket goes up in flames again
The Mars rocket Starship also went up in flames on its second attempt at flight.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk wants to one day take people to the moon and Mars with the reusable spaceship.
Source: WELT / Mig Preisinger and Steffen Schwarzkopf
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The United Arab Emirates could provide support for various missions with their weather satellite.
The state does not want to keep the measurement data from its satellite for itself, but rather make it available to the world's population.
"We want to provide the first data collection in early September," says Minister al-Amiri.
Before doing this, however, it must be ensured that the instruments are working correctly.
Then it would be possible to receive a Mars weather report including pictures several times a week.
"The data access is possible for everyone," says al-Amiri.
Whether for SpaceX or someone else: "We want to help science."
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The satellite with its instruments is the size of an SUV vehicle.
“We can watch the weather very closely.
Where are there clouds, water vapor, storms, and we can measure the temperature of the atmosphere, ”explains the software engineer.
No other Mars satellite allows such a complete view of the planet.
First, however, the complicated braking maneuver with the 27-minute ignition of the engines to swing the satellite into orbit has to work.
It should be braked from a speed of 121,000 kilometers per hour to 18,000.
The maneuver runs largely autonomously.
Commands from Earth to the satellite and back take 22 minutes.
Search for industries of the future
The mission is evidence of how the Emirates are looking for future fields outside of oil revenues.
You are practically forced to do so, because oil and gas are not industries of the future against the background of climate change.
Space travel is more of an ideal vehicle because of the many high-tech fields.
After the Mars weather satellite, a moon landing including a small rover is planned for 2024.
However, so far there are few details.
The most ambitious project is the project announced in 2017 to build a city on Mars in international cooperation by the year 2117.
Experts agree that the relatively small state could not manage such a mega-project on its own anyway.
There are ambitious goals such as a 100-year plan to motivate the young generation to get excited about science and to develop new technology.
For just under 116 million euros, the future city “Mars Science City” is to be built on the territory of the Emirates - with walls made of desert sand with a 3D printer.
The future supply of food, energy and water is to be tested in laboratories.
While the Emirates are pushing satellite technology, they are not currently considering building their own rockets.
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"At the moment there are cheap starting options," says Minister al-Amiri.
There were three launch offers for Mars weather satellites.
Ultimately, a launch in Japan with a rocket from the technology giant Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was chosen.
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.
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Source: Welt am Sonntag