Emirati pilot Shareef Al Romaithi is swapping the skies for an arduous simulation mission to enhance global ambitions to journey to Mars.
He is part of a Nasa project that places volunteers in near-isolation inside a habitat in Houston, Texas, for 45 days, where they live and work like astronauts travelling to Mars.
This will be the second mission for the UAE after another Emirati, Saleh Al Ameri, spent eight months replicating deep-space travel conditions in Moscow across 2021 and 2022.
Mr Al Romaithi, 39, a captain for Etihad Airways, will be starting his “journey to Mars” on May 10 when he and three of his crew members get locked inside the Human Exploration Research Analogue habitat.
They will exit the habitat, or “start their return to Earth”, on June 24.
The UAE's involvement in the crucial research programme was first revealed by The National in 2022.
Who is Shareef Al Romaithi?
Mr Al Romaithi has a stellar career in the airline industry, with more than 16 years of experience as a pilot. He currently commands Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft as a captain for Etihad Airways.
The Abu Dhabi native has more than 9,000 flight hours, including on multiple Airbus and Boeing aircraft.
He earned a doctorate in aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at the age of 31, which made him the youngest and eighth graduate to attain a doctorate in aviation at the time.
He is also an entrepreneur, having set up the Madari Space company, which focuses on launching data centres into space to mitigate the amount of carbon emissions produced on Earth.
His company is among many operating in the economic zone dedicated to space.
“There are thousands of data centres across the globe, and they consume a lot of energy for cooling purposes,” Mr Romaithi told The National in an earlier interview.
“This emits CO2 and greenhouse gases that exceed [those of] the aviation and shipping industries.
“By developing data centres in space, we can utilise unlimited power from the Sun to run the centres in a sustainable approach, while providing secure platforms for governments to save critical data.”
He said his company was at an early stage of developing data modules and is searching for launch providers to blast their final product into space.
What will his mission involve?
The project will help scientists study how humans adapt to isolation, confinement and remote conditions so that Nasa can send astronauts on deep-space missions one day.
The UAE is participating in this because it also hopes to send its astronauts to Mars in the future, including building a settlement by 2117.
Crew members will carry out scientific research and operational tasks throughout their simulated mission to the Red Planet, including a “walk” on Mars’s surface using virtual reality.
They will experience increasing communication delays lasting up to five minutes each way with Mission Control Centre as they “near” Mars.
Mr Romaithi will also be carrying out six experiments for universities in the UAE, including the United Arab Emirates University, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the American University of Sharjah.
This is the second group of volunteers to participate in the Hera mission this year, with the previous one completing theirs on March 18.
Two other missions will follow this year, with the final Hera crew slated to finish on December 20.
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
2019 ASIAN CUP FINAL
Japan v Qatar
Friday, 6pm
Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
Mercedes V250 Avantgarde specs
Engine: 2.0-litre in-line four-cylinder turbo
Gearbox: 7-speed automatic
Power: 211hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 350Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.0 l/100 km
Price: Dh235,000
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Score
Third Test, Day 2
New Zealand 274
Pakistan 139-3 (61 ov)
Pakistan trail by 135 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the innings
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Haemoglobin disorders explained
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
