Spacewalks and long-haul missions: Emirati astronauts to be trained by Nasa

Emirati astronauts will receive training at Nasa’s spaceflight training centre in Houston this year as part of a new agreement signed between the UAE and the US space agency.

Maj Hazza Al Mansouri, the first Emirati to fly into space, and reserve astronaut Dr Sultan Al Neyadi, arrived in the States on Monday to begin the programme at Johnson Space Centre.

The news comes four days ahead of the first anniversary of UAE's landmark journey to the International Space Station on September 25 of last year.

"We are pleased to announce the signing of an agreement with Nasa to train UAE astronauts for potential missions to the International Space Station, including space walks and long duration station missions. The programme will train our youth and astronauts for future missions," tweeted Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.

Spacewalking astronauts train in a pool filled with 2.3 million litres of water. Courtesy: Sheikh Mohammed's Twitter

The training will take two and a half years to complete and will include the two new astronauts who will join the UAE's space programme next year.

Salem Al Marri, head of the astronaut programme, said the agreement opens up new partnership opportunities between Nasa and the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

The two space agencies have finalised a reimbursable space agreement, meaning that the UAE will pay for the use of Nasa facilities and services.

It could allow Emirati astronauts to participate in long haul space missions. The first one by Maj Al Mansouri was for eight days.

“The International Space Station systems training is one of the most specialised training modules, and our astronauts will benefit immensely from it," said Mr Al Marri.

"We will continue to work together with the US on further collaborations in the coming months and propel the global space sector towards a brighter future.”

Under the agreement, the astronauts will receive training in multiple areas of operations on the International Space Station, including major systems, robotics, spacewalking and an array of leadership training.

The partnership is expected to pave the way for the UAE to participate in future Nasa missions, including its Artemis programme.

Nasa and the UAE Space Agency had signed a co-operation agreement a few years ago, which said the two entities would collaborate on human spaceflights in future.

“This agreement to train Emirati astronauts will pave the way for even closer relations between our two nations creating new opportunities for the UAE to become involved in the International Space Station, Artemis, and other Nasa activities,” said James Morhard, Nasa deputy administrator.

Spacewalk training will be carried out in a pool filled with 2.3 million litres of water at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Each hour spent doing a spacewalk requires seven hours of training in the pool.

During spacewalks, astronauts experience weightlessness and similar sensations to swimming in a pool.

Astronauts and cosmonauts routinely float outside of the International Space Station for seven to eight hours at a time to do maintenance work on the spaceship.

They must wear a 115 kilogram-heavy suit that is filled with oxygen, called extravehicular activity (EVA), and be tied to the station with a safety tether so they do not float away.

These tasks are incredibly risky. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano nearly drowned during a spacewalk in 2013 when water leaked into his helmet.

“The US and UAE enjoy a strong relationship here on Earth, and we are excited to extend that relationship into the final frontier,” said Mr Morhard.

“The UAE has made extraordinary progress in the space arena in a very short amount of time with the successful launch of the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope probe, the region’s first interplanetary spacecraft, serving as the most recent example of the UAE’s ambitious space program.”

In the meanwhile, the search for two new astronauts are ongoing. Applications to apply were closed in May, with 4,305 nationals vying to follow in the footsteps of Maj Al Mansouri.

Officials said at the time that the search would be in the interview round, where 80 shortlisted candidates would be tested on their space knowledge, ability to lead and take command.

Most of this year's applicants are engineers, pilots, medical professionals and experts in fields of science.

Forty-four per cent of the applicants are from Abu Dhabi, 23 per cent from Dubai, and the rest from the five other emirates, while 130 hold PhDs.

Out of the total applicants, 1,400 of them are women - 250 more female entrants than in the last round of applications in 2018.

On September 10, Maj Al Mansouri and Dr Al Neyadi completed advanced scuba training, which is an essential skill that astronauts need to prepare for space missions. It helps the body adapt to the motion felt during spacewalk.

No new space mission has been announced by the UAE yet. Mr Al Marri had told The National they were open to all space players capable of sending humans to the ISS.

Russia continues to send astronauts to the space station on its Soyuz spacecraft, and human spaceflights have returned in US with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

If you go

The flights

There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.

The trip

Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.

The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.

While you're here

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The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative

RESULT

Shabab Al Ahli Dubai 0 Al Ain 6
Al Ain: Caio (5', 73'), El Shahat (10'), Berg (65'), Khalil (83'), Al Ahbabi (90' 2)

Mubalada World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule

Thursday December 27

Men's quarter-finals

Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm

Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm

Women's exhibition

Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm

Friday December 28

5th place play-off 3pm

Men's semi-finals

Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm

Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm

Saturday December 29

3rd place play-off 5pm

Men's final 7pm

LAST-16 EUROPA LEAGUE FIXTURES

Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)

FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm

Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm

Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm

Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm

Thursday

Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm

Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm

FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm

Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm

MATCH INFO

Schalke 0

Werder Bremen 1 (Bittencourt 32')

Man of the match Leonardo Bittencourt (Werder Bremen)

WHAT ARE NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that represent ownership of unique items. They allow the tokenisation of things such as art, collectibles and even real estate.

An NFT can have only one official owner at one time. And since they're minted and secured on the Ethereum blockchain, no one can modify the record of ownership, not even copy-paste it into a new one.

This means NFTs are not interchangeable and cannot be exchanged with other items. In contrast, fungible items, such as fiat currencies, can be exchanged because their value defines them rather than their unique properties.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

MATCH INFO

Newcastle 2-2 Manchester City
Burnley 0-2 Crystal Palace
Chelsea 0-1 West Ham
Liverpool 2-1 Brighton
Tottenham 3-2 Bournemouth
Southampton v Watford (late)