Space exploration link-up for the UAE

ABU DHABI // Space, software and nanotechnology are some of the key areas in which Belarus will cooperate with the UAE this year.

Some of the country’s projects include remote-sensing satellites, start trackers, solar panels and developing the UAE’s mobile government programmes.

“Belarus, possessing significant potential in space technologies, is poised to develop cooperation with the UAE within space exploration programmes, including the ambitious plan to launch a research probe to Mars in 2021,” said Roman Golovchenko, the Belarusian ambassador to the UAE.

The planned projects include satellite technology that can be used for creating images from space.

“We are working closely in these areas with the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology that recently became part of the newly established Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai,” he said.

Two months ago a couple of professors from UAE University visited the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics in Minsk to find potential research projects in nanotechnology. “They gave us a list of proposals and projects and we contacted faculty members at the UAE University in the same area of research to link them up,” said Dr Ahmed Al Marzouqi, associate professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at the university.

“We’re hoping that by August or September we will identify some of these research projects we will collaborate on.”

One of the projects of interest to the UAE involves renewable energy and solar panels.

“One of the problems the solar panels in the UAE have is the dust and sand that settle on them, scratch them and reduce their efficiency,” he said.

“So they are thinking of developing some protective layers based on nanotechnology that will protect them and ensure the efficiency isn’t reduced with time.”

Dr Al Marzouqi said nanotechnology was one that could be used in other disciplines, including energy and medicine. “It would be nice to set up collaborations and links with the Belarusian State University so that certain technologies, new ideas and techniques can be brought here,” he said. “Nanotechnology is one of the most popular and interesting technologies that will be useful in the future and the sooner we get involved in this the better.”

The UAE’s Ministry of Economy plans to sign an agreement in software development with the High Technologies Park in Belarus by the end of the year.