The challenge of living and working on Mars has literally come down to Earth with a new research project.
Dubai’s Space Settlement Challenge offers funding for the best research ideas to help humanity conquer space and the Red Planet.
Launched in February, the challenge has received more than 260 research proposals from 200 leading universities in 55 countries.
They include Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University in the United States and both Cambridge and Oxford University in the UK.
The challenge is organised by Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Accelerated Research, a new think tank created by Dubai Future Foundation.
Proposals include advanced bio-engineering for life support on Mars, to business models that will ensure the success of the space industry.
_______________
Read more:
Mars One chief: privately-funded mission to the Red Planet will happen
Taste of life on the Red Planet is coming to Dubai
Special report: The UAE's journey into space
_______________
The challenge has three categories, including discovering a landing site that could support up to 100 people, creating a viable life support environment and finally a model that would make best use of the private sector.
Between 20 and 30 of the proposals will eventually receive seed funding.
Khalfan Belhoul, the chief executive of Dubai Future Foundation said: “Our mandate is to identify the challenges of tomorrow and turn them into opportunities today for our nation and for humanity at large.
“The Centre for Accelerated Research will be tackling complex issues such as space settlement, digital economics, artificial intelligence and more.”
Dubai is also creating Mars Science City, a research and visitor centre that will explore what human colonisation of the planet might look like, to be built by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.
Later this year, the KhalifaSat Earth observation satellite is due to be launched by the space centre, while selection continues for the UAE’s first astronaut training programme in conjunction with the UAE Space Agency.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
Barings Bank
Barings, one of Britain’s oldest investment banks, was
founded in 1762 and operated for 233 years before it went bust after a trading
scandal.
Barings Bank collapsed in February 1995 following colossal
losses caused by rogue trader Nick Lesson.
Leeson gambled more than $1 billion in speculative trades,
wiping out the venerable merchant bank’s cash reserves.
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
