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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Cometary and Asteroid Missions _ Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA)

Posted by: Greg Hullender May 29 2023, 08:01 PM

In the absence of a formal document on the UAE site (I even checked the Arabic pages), I think https://www.space.com/uae-asteroid-mission-details-landing-2034 had the most information:

QUOTE

The MBR Explorer will visit its first asteroid in 2030, and will follow an orbital path allowing it to pick up speed from several planets along the way.

After passing by six asteroids, the mission aims to touch down upon Justitia in 2034 with a small lander that will deploy from MBR Explorer.

The rest of the mission manifest includes flybys of the asteroids (10254) Westerwald, (623) Chimaera, (13294) Rockox; (88055) 2000 VA28, (23871) 1998 RC76 and (59980) 1999 SG6, all meant to represent "different classes of asteroid with varied compositional types," UAE Space Agency officials said in the same statement. Justitia and Chimaera are around 31 miles (50 kilometers) in diameter, with the remaining asteroids less than 6 miles (10 km) across each.

Posted by: mcaplinger May 29 2023, 08:25 PM

QUOTE (Greg Hullender @ May 29 2023, 12:01 PM)

I think https://www.space.com/uae-asteroid-mission-details-landing-2034 had the most information...

I think there's more info in https://spaceref.com/science-and-exploration/touring-asteroid-belt-united-arab-emirates-unveils-bold-mission/
and https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/29/science/uae-asteroid-mission.html (paywalled, sorry.)

Posted by: Tom Tamlyn May 29 2023, 11:06 PM

Gift link for the NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/29/science/uae-asteroid-mission.html?unlocked_article_code=2LgmU9qwYxf2op-BuBndxcnaw03CkaWJB6_t3JBzSblv2PY1bP1-eO9BX9PZ8zY2s94fpDDNA0__acZy9wb_DPWLW85Q3By86ZFFLhsFb-4qfaoctaEW5Op-qxWpSoui_I0r6upfycbzcaLAo73mqvUf9gDD45Aa5534h_q5_mG-JGvYud4MM6VHW7Hbb9uMlYy4BqwOzNhUhpKo6DS0sxqGN9e-U_pUiaiV2NKey8pwhuicIlUtJ82vD1laFw79BdBYOa_ddCfDHKSRrG_iZimmOATN6QFO_2VEfV3qaenCdCPmGiIpq6UPvXvtV_WvbMRDwMZHyKHUWw7R6nw&smid=url-share

Posted by: Decepticon May 31 2023, 12:34 AM

Wil they be using a Lucy design? Looks very similar.

Posted by: mcaplinger May 31 2023, 01:03 AM

QUOTE (Decepticon @ May 30 2023, 05:34 PM)

Wil they be using a Lucy design? Looks very similar.

It has two circular solar arrays (presumably ATK Ultraflex arrays like Lucy's) but according to https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/2023/05/10/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-uaes-mission-to-the-asteroid-belt/ it will use solar-electric propulsion. Lucy uses a chemical biprop engine. I don't know if the supplier of the spacecraft has been selected yet.