Countdown continues for launch of UAE satellite

The DubaiSat-1 will enable better tracking and mapping of the country's changing landscape.

This 2007 NASA image is a satellite shot of Dubai showing The World and The Palm.

ABU DHABI // The UAE's first satellite, due to launch within six months, will enable the Government to better plan by tracking and mapping the country's changing landscape minute by minute. At the Global Space Technology Forum in Abu Dhabi yesterday, programme managers said the satellite would be launched in the first quarter of next year from a base in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. That is delayed from the end of this year. The satellite has been finished since July, but sending it into space has been subject to a series of delays.

Salem al Marri, manager of the DubaiSat-1 programme, said the "difficult part of the job" was the logistics involved in the launch. With estimated costs of Dh146,900 (US$40,000) for every kilogram being sent into space, the 200kg DubaiSat-1 could cost at least Dh29.4 million to launch. The Emirates Institution of Advanced Science and Technology, which was established by a Dubai government decree in 2006 and oversaw the building of the satellite, refused to confirm the cost of building it.

Since the technology needed to build satellites is not available in the Emirates, the work was done in Daejeon, South Korea. There, starting two years ago, 16 Emirati engineers formed the core of the team that began assembling the satellite. "It is very significant for us to have an Earth-observing satellite, but the biggest significance for me is that we have had Emiratis involved in building it," said Mr Marri. "It is a huge source of pride for us."

DubaiSat-1 will provide access to images of the country minutes after the photographs are taken from space. From its perch 700km above the Middle East, it will send back images in unprecedented detail, down to the design of the pavement. Emirati institutions have in the past relied on private companies, such as Space Imaging Middle East in Dubai, for images of the country from space. However, the images are often weeks old, as they are taken of Dubai just once a month and less often of the rest of the country.

"These images will help us find the rate of development in this country," said Ali al Suwaidi, an engineer for EIAST. "It is moving very, very fast and if you leave for only one week, there will be huge changes while you are gone." The satellite will have many applications, including planning infrastructure and making transportation decisions. "We will process the images and then give them, for example, to the Roads and Transport Authority or to the municipality who can then use them as they wish," said Mr Marri. "We could give infrared images of Dubai to DEWA [Dubai Electricity and Water Authority] and they could decide where to put water pipes or electricity lines, or we could give Nakheel pictures to show how work on the Palm is progressing."

The satellite could also be used in the event of a disaster, similar to how private companies supplied Asian governments with up-to-date images of the effect of the tsunami in Dec 2004. "Look at the earthquake in China or the flooding in Myanmar," said Mr Marri. "You can have accurate images of the area from 10 minutes previously and give it to the appropriate team, and they can process it as they wish.

"They can get a very good source image of the scene and decide, if one area is affected more than any other, where their priority is." The images will be available to all Government bodies as well as academic institutions. Mr Marri said it had not yet been decided whether the images would be made available to private companies for a fee. Work has started on designing another satellite, DubaiSat-2, which is expected to be launched in 2012.

DubaiSat-1 will not be the country's first satellite in space, since communications and television satellites are in orbit. In 2010, Yahsat, a Mubadala subsidiary, will launch the communications satellite YahSat 1A. [e-mail]