A new ambitious initiative to see MBR Explorer which will touch down on an asteroid in 2034

As part of an ambitious initiative unveiled on Monday, a UAE spacecraft would fly for seven years and cover 7 billion km. The MBR Explorer, which will touch down on an asteroid in 2034, will be named after His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed announced on Twitter that the 13-year expedition from the UAE to study the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter will take six years for development and seven for travel. The MBR Explorer will go ten times as far than the UAE's Mars mission, the Hope Probe, which entered orbit in 2021. The spacecraft will go farther than Mars on its billions of kilometre trek to the asteroid belt, where it will eventually settle in 2034 after having explored seven asteroids.

For one reason—its faith in its youth—the UAE can soar five billion kilometres, according to Sheikh Mohammed. Nothing is impossible for Emiratis, and that will always be our credo.