Eight years, no turning back: UAE’s bold asteroid quest

Abu Dhabi-The UAE's Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt's (EMA) distance from Earth leaves little room for intervention. The spacecraft is expected to travel about 5 billion kilometres over an eight-year journey, and Dr. Najwa, CEO of Technology Innovation Institute (TII), said there would be no remote control to call it back if something went wrong. That makes rigorous engineering, testing and validation essential before launch.

Dr. Najwa, and the Mission Director of UAE Space Agency, Engineer Mohsen Al Awadhi described the constraints that make reliability and local expertise central to the programmes.

The spacecraft must also operate through sharply different environments. Dr. Najwa described a route involving gravity assists from Venus, Earth and Mars, followed by travel into the asteroid belt. Near the Sun, heat creates demanding thermal-management requirements; elsewhere, temperatures and environmental conditions change.

She also noted that materials can expand or contract in response, putting pressure on the design of components and systems.

The mission’s complexity extends beyond its physical hardware. It combines propulsion, software, autonomy, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Najwa pointed to AI’s non-deterministic nature as an additional challenge in building a system that can be trusted to operate without continuous human intervention.

Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of Sports, Chairman of UAE Space Agency said, “there is no backup plan”. The mission has a launch window of about 21 days in March 2028. If they miss it, the selected asteroids and mission design may not work again for another 100 years.

“So, this is another layer of challenge and complexity when we think about these missions on EMM (Emirates Mars Mission),” he added.

The mission depends heavily on a specialised team. Al Awadhi said the programme could be put at risk when team members are away, “if they are not working on the mission, the mission is at risk,” he added, underscoring how central their expertise is to the work.

He described the development of that human capital as a key achievement, while emphasising that future missions should be led by increasingly experienced local teams.

“If 80% is being done by our engineers today. The next mission will be fully developed here,” Dr. Najwa added, noting that in the next mission, UAE wouldn’t need Colorado.

Al Awadhi presented greater local development including a more fully locally developed propulsion subsystem, as an ambition for future missions, not a current capability.

Faisal Al-Manai, adviser to the UAE President and secretary-general of the Advanced Technology Research Council, said the programme’s true value would be seen in the years to come, when the programmes of the future will be built on the knowledge and experience gained through it.

“This is yet another programme that really builds on the knowledge and the experience built in other programs and the confidence we are having as a country to take multiple missions in in the space,” he said, discussing the mission was building technology that would require engineers on Earth to rely on a probe operating 5 billion kilometres away.

True sovereignty should allow a nation to test, modify, and progress its own technological developments for future missions, according to him.

This mission serves as a milestone that builds confidence in the UAE's ability to conduct complex, autonomous operations far from Earthly control. The programme has also trained Emirati engineers and strengthened the country's expertise in space technology, designed, built, and tested in the UAE.

Space exploration, according to Dr. Ahmed Bilhol Filas, Minister of Sports and Chairman of the UAE Space Agency, has significantly boosted STEM enrolment in the UAE, including a 30% increase in students overall and a notable rise in female participation.

A specialized landing component will detach from the main probe in early 2036 to touch the surface of an asteroid. With the spacecraft designed with autonomous intelligence, the technology will make independent decisions regarding imaging planets and asteroids without further commands from Earth

The mission's destination is the red asteroid 269 Justicia, which may hold clues regarding the origins of water and organic material in the solar system.