Emirati engineers to start building asteroid-exploring spacecraft after design receives final approval

The MBR Explorer will be a 'smart' spacecraft, flying autonomously across six asteroids and attempting a landing on the seventh

The MBR Explorer by the UAE Space Agency will study seven rocks in the main asteroid belt. This is a rendering of the craft. Photo: UAE Space Agency

The MBR Explorer has enormous solar panels to help power its electrical solar propulsion system. Photo: UAE Space Agency

A rendering of the MBR Explorer, which is set to launch in 2028. Photo: UAE Space Agency

Space rocks in the main asteroid belt. Photo: Image via Lynette Cook/ W. M. Keck Observatory/ ROOM

Emirati engineers will soon build a spacecraft to blast off on a seven-year odyssey in 2028 to explore an asteroid belt lying between Mars and Jupiter.

The MBR Explorer, a 2,300kg craft being developed as part of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA), is nearing its critical design review phase, a key milestone in which the blueprint of the craft receives its final approval.

It will embark on a five-billion-kilometre journey to perform flybys of six asteroids and then deploy a lander that will touchdown on the seventh.

The spacecraft, to be launched aboard a Japanese rocket, is being designed to be highly autonomous, enabling it to navigate from one asteroid to the next to capture data and images while travelling at speeds of 33,000kph.

“We’re heading towards the critical design review. That means that everything on the spacecraft should be solidified,” Mohammed Omran Alameri, lead engineer for space projects at the UAE Space Agency, told The National in an interview at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday.

“Then, we’ll start the assembly, integration and testing, ensuring that the spacecraft will be capable when exposed to the space environment.”

Protecting the craft from Venus’s heat

To reach the belt, the craft will swing by Venus, Mars and then Earth to accelerate itself there using the planets’ gravity during its journey.

Mr Alameri said that this mission’s design was “much more complicated” than the country’s mission to Mars as it is going deeper into space.

“We're going beyond Mars and we're getting very close to the Sun when we do the Venus gravity assist manoeuvre,” he said.

Mohammed Omran Alameri, lead engineer for space projects at the UAE Space Agency. Sarwat Nasir / The National

“The Venus gravity itself – it's imposed a lot of thermal constraints. The spacecraft needs to be able to dissipate a lot of heat because we're close to the Sun.

“At the same time, when we go to the asteroid belt, it's a very cold environment, so you need the heat to be within the spacecraft.”

He said the spacecraft would use an electric propulsion system, which is essential for long-duration missions like this one.

Solar arrays, measuring 16 metres, on the MBR Explorer will help generate significant amount of power to run the propulsion system and other critical systems.

They would also help the craft stay at the right temperature, ensuring it can handle both the extreme heat near Venus and the freezing cold of the asteroid belt.

A ‘smart’ spacecraft

One of the most advanced features of the MBR Explorer would be its ability to autonomously navigate through space without direct intervention from Earth.

As the spacecraft approaches each asteroid at a distance from 150km, it will need to capture high-resolution images and scientific data in a matter of minutes.

Vast distances from Earth would cause significant communication delays, which means ground control will not be able to guide the spacecraft in real-time.

“This is where the autonomous navigation system comes in,” said Mr Alameri.

“The on-board processing system on the spacecraft will take images many days before reaching the asteroid and will then send it back to the ground station.

“We will process the images and then adjust any navigation that may needed, which the craft will then perform autonomously once its close to the asteroid.”

The MBR Explorer will launch aboard Japan's H3 rocket. Reuters

The UAE is working with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (Lasp) at the University of Colorado Boulder again for this mission, as they did previously for its mission to Mars.

“We can't do a mission like EMA (Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt) alone,” said Mr Alameri.

“We need the partnership and we have our Lasp colleagues as primary knowledge transfer partner.”

The Arizona State University is also working with the Emirati engineers, and the Italian Space Agency has contributed instruments on the craft.

About 40 engineers from the UAE are temporarily based in Colorado to work on the mission, including from the UAE Space Agency, academic institutions and private companies.

The agency is working with several companies to develop the mission, including the lander that the spacecraft will deploy on the surface of the seventh asteroid, Justitia, in 2035.