ISSUE 8 WELCOME LETTER

Since the UAE launched the UAE National Space Program in 2017 by H. H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and H. H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE and Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the country has witnessed major achievements including the realization of the first space mission to Mars, called the HOPE mission.

The HOPE Probe collected over 1.7 TB of data on the Martian atmosphere, weather patterns and climate history, providing critical information that will help predict climate changes on Earth and support future Mars missions and planetary explorations.

As most are aware, the key goals of the National Space Program include overseeing the realization of the first scientific city on the Red Planet as part of the 2117 Mars program and launching the Arab Space Discovery Program aimed at making the UAE a frontrunner in the global space industry.

The UAE is prioritizing the space sector for the next 50 years. The UAE seeks to launch human space missions every three to five years, a goal that is one among a long list of groundbreaking space projects.

The success of the UAE National Space program is a culmination of efforts and investments, of which research is a strong part. One of the aims of the UAE National program is to prepare UAE cadres who are specialized in aerospace sciences and this entails universities who are offering strong curriculum and research in this area.

In the 2021 UAE Space Economic survey, it was found that there was a 14.8% increase in research and development in the area of space exploration which accounted for a total of 76.8%. In addition Emirati nationals comprised 38.5% of the space sector workforce and 59.2% of the employees in the UAE›s space sector are Emirati youth.

Another important statistic revealed in the survey showed that 54.4% of entities in the UAE benefiting from the space program were the communications sector, followed by security, education, tourism, and entertainment. Furthermore the survey revealed an 83.6% increase in scientific publications.

When UAE’s Sultan AlNeyadi stepped outside the airlock of the International Space Station to begin a seven hour spacewalk, he became the first Arab astronaut to venture into the unknown depths of space. Sultan AlNeyadi conducted more than 200 experiments assigned by NASA and 19 by UAE universities on diverse topics including cardiovascular and immune systems, back pain, epigenetics, fluid science, plant biology, material science, sleep analysis and radiation.

This is exactly why I am so proud to showcase the innovative space research from professors, researchers and youth across UAE universities and schools.

This issue shares research never done before, such as the UAE Gene expression research to be utilized by Astronauts to safeguard their health during long missions, or NYU Abu Dhabi University researchers uncovering the strange behavior of a millisecond pulsar, a super-fast-spinning dead star.

UAE researchers have also been the first to produce a Mars Atlas utilizing images from the Emirates Mars mission, the HOPE probe which is now being developed into a more informative book that will be published in both English and Arabic. But this won’t be the last as the UAE embarks on its Asteroid Belt mission and Lunar Gateway mission.

We even have researchers such as those at Khalifa University who have developed new trajectories to explore Saturn and its moons that require less energy utilization for space crafts.

UAE university researchers are even using technologies such as AI and Machine Learning to better detect and classify meteors and solar bursts.

Innovation has not stopped here, our universities and professors are at the cornerstone of the upcoming Abu Dhabi Space Debate strategy council meeting which will be held at the beginning of December 2024. The meeting will debate the space industry’s most pressing challenges and drive the new space economy.

Once again, I hope you enjoy this issue of Innovation@UAE as we take you on a journey that goes beyond Earth, beyond our solar system, while keeping humanity at the heart of it all!

His Excellency Dr. Mohammad Al-Mualla Undersecretary for Academic Affairs Ministry of Education