The UAE has unveiled a homegrown probe that will travel to asteroid 269 Justitia as part of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt, marking a new phase in the country’s deep-space program.
Developed by the UAE Space Agency with Abu Dhabi’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the probe is heading to Colorado for integration with the Mohammed bin Rashid Explorer. It will return to the UAE for final testing before being sent to Japan for a planned March 2028 launch.
The eight-year mission will cover about 5 billion kilometers, using gravity assists from Venus, Earth and Mars. The spacecraft will fly past six asteroids before reaching Justitia in 2036. The 54-kilometer-wide asteroid sits in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and will be studied for clues about water, organic compounds and the early solar system.
The UAE-built probe is expected to make a two-to-three-hour ballistic descent and impact the asteroid at between 15 and 27 metres per second, potentially creating a crater and exposing material beneath the surface.
TII said 20 UAE engineers have worked across the probe’s hardware, software, imaging, communications and thermal systems. The project builds on expertise developed through the Hope Probe and is intended to strengthen the UAE’s ability to develop sovereign space technology.
Source: Fast Company Middle East
