Industry and education must work together to succeed with space ambitions

'You can buy all the technology you want, it does not mean that you will have a successful space programme,' says Dr Mohammed Al Ahbabi, director general of the UAE Space Agency.

Ahmed Al Shamsi, right, chief technology officer at Thuraya, at the announcement of The National Space Programme, an initiative for high school and university students to have an experiment performed on the International Space Station. Silvia Razgova for The NationalShow less

ABU DHABI // Developing human resources in the UAE’s emerging space industry was just as important as developing the sector’s infrastructure, experts said.

“You can buy all the technology you want, it does not mean that you will have a successful space programme,” said Dr Mohammed Al Ahbabi, director general of the UAE Space Agency.

While establishing the space agency, which came into existence last year, Dr Al Ahbabi said he continuously received advice to invest in human capital.

One of the principal ways this could be achieved was to ensure there was a strong relationship between industry and the education sector, said Ahmed Al Shamsi, chief technology officer at Thuraya, a satellite telecoms company.

“If you look at the countries that have good space programmes they are always linked closely with universities,” he said.

Mr Al Shamsi said the development of students in the field, through programmes offering internships, scholarships and training, was a sound way to ensure a good supply of home-grown talent. These programmes offered budding engineers and scientists practical experience, furthering their knowledge and engagement while benefiting the industry.

“It is important we develop these programmes as they provide benefits not just for research but also for real-life application,” Mr Al Shamsi said.

He said The National Space Programme – an initiative offering high-school pupils and university students a chance to have their projects launched into space – was a good example of one of these projects.

“I think this competition is one of the tools to push young people to think outside the box.”

The programme’s university level competition, the Satellite Launch project, challenges students to build a satellite, with the winning team travelling to the US to watch their satellite sent by rocket to the International Space Station.

After helping to establish Khalifa University’s space programme, Dr Ahmed Bani Younes, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, said the competition fell in line with what he was trying to do.

Through hands-on training at the university’s Spacecraft Platform for Astronautic and Celestial Emulation laboratory, which mimics actual conditions in space and connecting field trips to the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, Dr Younes said students were getting real-life experience of examples of the use of satellites.

“When students can see how satellites will function in space at the lab or have access to the command centre tracking satellites at the space centre they get a feel of the real thing,” he said.

Through the competition students will be able to develop the skills they need to build satellites and come up with practical uses for the satellites.

With Thuraya supporting the competition by providing internships and facilities for testing, Mr Al Shamsi said the development of students in the field could greatly benefit the country.

“If you look at the great advancements in telecommunications and the internet, such as social media, they were created by students. Now they are everywhere. The same could easily happen in the space sector here.”