UAE's plan to explore Venus, land a probe on asteroid 560 million km away

  

Months after successfully launching and operating its first spacecraft around Mars, the United Arab Emirates has set its eyes on two daring missions, exploring Venus and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The UAE Space Agency has announced plans to launch a probe to the belt and land on an asteroid.

 The mission is being hailed as the next big thing in the Arab world, which has tasted victory with the Hope probe that is successfully orbiting Mars about 300 million kilometres away. The oil-rich federation will collect data from the asteroid and try to understand the origins of the universe and solve the biggest mystery in astronomy, how did it all begin? 

The project targets a 2028 launch with a landing in 2033, a five-year journey in which the spacecraft will travel close to 3.6 billion kilometres to arrive at its destination. "The launch of a new project to explore Venus and the asteroid belt sets an ambitious new goal for our country’s burgeoning space programme," Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi said.

Source Indiatoday