Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre to be profiled on CNN

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre is integral to the strategic initiative put in place by the government

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) will be profiled in an international TV programme on CNN at 7pm on February 29.

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre will be featured on The Connectors segment in CNN International’s programme, Connect The World with Becky Anderson.

In the profile, CNN meets some of scientists behind the Space Centre and their quest to launch the Arab World’s first Mars probe.

Salem Al Merri, assistant director-general, Scientific and Technology Affairs, MBRSC, tells The Connectors: ““The Dubai government wanted to diversify further and go into science and technology. Our key focus from day one was that we need to depend on nationalising the industry… so we chose a team of very strong leaders — five or six people — who are now the leaders in our main projects here in the UAE.”

Mohammad Al Harmi, director, Space Operations, explains: “It was one of our first goals to have Emirati engineers capable of manufacturing satellites in the country. I moved to Korea on April 29, 2006. I lived there for almost eight years. The main purpose of us moving to Korea was to get the know-how technology transfer of manufacturing satellites and all sub-systems,” he said.
Currently they are working on the flight model of KhalifaSat. KhalifaSat is the first satellite that is being developed in the UAE by Emirati engineers.

Adnan Mohammad Al Rais, manager, Business Development and External Relations, tells CNN: “We are a non-profit organisation, however, after the launch of DubaiSat-1 and 2 ….we saw that we can commercialise our services... They are using our images for urban planning to plan the road networks in the country, the environment departments uses them to study the vegetation in Dubai.”

Omran Sharaf, project manager for the Emirates Mars Mission, tells CNN: “The UAE has never been to Mars, there’s a lot of learning, we have to hit a lot of milestones and hit a lot of birds with one stone. Going to Mars is just a means…the main objective is to bring hope to the region — beyond the UAE.”
Source: Gulf News