Experts say UAE should participate in space studies programme

The International Space University offers a nine-week programme each year, and the UAE could ask a focus group to study the Mars probe.

DUBAI // The UAE should host a reputed space academy course that would provide a focus-group study of its Mars programme, experts have urged.

The International Space University each year has a nine-week study programme in a different host country. This year it will be in Montreal, Canada, and next year in Ohio, the US.

Saeed Al Dhaheri was the first Emirati to take part in the course, when it was inaugurated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston in 1988.

Mr Al Dhaheri said the programme would provide a vital plank in helping to prepare Emiratis for leading roles in the country’s space agency, to be formed by decree this year.

“We talk about needing to build a skills capacity for the UAE,” he said.

“The only way to do this is to educate our people and put them into these professional programmes on space science and engineering, as well as participating in these international events. The ISU is one of the channels that can fulfil some part of their education.”

Mr Al Dhaheri, a former UAE University professor and now an undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said so far only 12 GCC nationals had taken part in the space studies programme or the ISU master’s programme, which is held in Strasbourg, France.

He said his course, the theme of which was establishing a base on the Moon, involved more than 100 people from 30 countries.

Those taking part were split into groups, with each looking at a different aspect of the mission.

Their findings were presented in a paper that is now part of the research being considered by Nasa in its plans to establish a manned station on the Moon.

Mr Al Dhaheri said a UAE programme could ask for the theme to be a Mars probe, to help provide ideas for the country’s orbiter mission to the Red Planet in 2021. “By doing this, the UAE can tap into expertise from all over the world,” he said.

“You’re not only working with people from your own country but with professionals from all different fields, from all different countries.”

Abdul Ismail, chief executive of the UK consultancy Interplanetary Expeditions, shared the course with Mr Al Dhaheri and is now on the ISU board of trustees.

He runs a LinkedIn group called UAE space sector professionals.

“One of the many benefits of a nation hosting a space studies programme is the fact that the host can propose a team project that could be of immense benefit to them,” Mr Ismail said.

“So you will have a team of international students, including Emirati participants, led by experts from space agencies, corporate space companies or academia producing a document that in some cases has gone on to be implemented for real-life application, such as defining national policy.”

A kind of bidding process determines which country hosts the space studies programme.

It is similar, although on a much smaller scale, to the choice of hosts for the Olympic Games.

Mr Ismail said the UAE had a growing space industry that included the DubaiSat projects, YahSat, Thuraya and now the national space agency.

“The UAE now stands a much better chance at hosting the space science programme than it would have done even six years ago,” he said.

A benefit of the programme was that it involved people from all different academic backgrounds, including electrical and mechanical engineering, aerospace and other related fields, Mr Ismail said.