admin Dubai: The UAE is looking at other new boundaries for space tourism and mining. UAE has sent its first astronaut into space this year and planning to launch a probe to Mars.
But according to the chief of the Emirates Space Agency, first there needs to be regulation.
Mohammed al-Ahbabi, the space agency’s director general expressed the UAE will sanction its first space law within a few months, designed to attract investment and regulate the activities and services of companies operating in the country. It was approved by the government and now is in its final stage of issuing.
Ahbabi said for the new law, drafted by the agency, would address future space tourism or mining projects. “We think it’s going to come to (fruition) within the next 10 years, there is no project today because the technology is not yet there, but we’re looking ahead of time and putting together those regulations.”
The space agency signed a memorandum of understanding in March, with Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic for cooperation on various plans, including potential tourism flights.
George Whitesides CEO of Virgin Galactic said, “We look forward to working with the UAE Space Agency and other partners in the UAE.”
UAE-developed satellites have to follow international space treaties, the new law will also regulate this.
Abhabi said, “This is a legal document to regulate the space industry … for example registering your satellite and making sure you have the proper licensing.”
He added, UAE plans to launch eight satellites in the next few years whereas it has 10 functioning satellites in orbit.
The existing satellites, he said, were under the jurisdiction of other government entities, including the telecommunications authority and the finance ministry.
“But now we’re transferring all the data to the space agency,” he said.
Earlier this year, setting out a framework for its activities in the sector over the next decade the UAE has launched its national space strategy.
And it celebrated in September, the milestone of sending the first Emirati into space.
Hazza al-Mansouri returned home to a hero’s welcome after an eight-day mission in which he became the first Arab to visit the International Space Station, where he took part in scientific experiments including a time-perception study. He was part of a three-member crew that blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. He. To replicate conditions on Mars, the UAE is planning to build a “Science City” and it targets to become the first Arab country to launch an unmanned probe, named Hope, which will travel to Mars before returning to Earth the following year by 2020.
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