GSSF2013: DubaiSat-2 to launch in fourth quarter 2013

The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) confirmed today that DubaiSat-2 will launch in the fourth quarter of 2013.
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Salem Al Marri, Assistant Director General, EIAST (pictured), said that Dubai's second earth observation satellite now has a launch slot and will be lofted aboard a Dnepr LV vehicle, provided by Russia's KOSMOTRAS.

The satellite will orbit 600 km above the earth’s surface, compared with the 690 km orbit of DubaiSat-1. The orbit has also been changed from an ascending obit (South to North) to a descending orbit (North to South), which will allow both satellites to work well in constellation as well as give better coverage of the UAE area.
 
Among other improvements, the UAE team, along with their South Korean Partners (Satrec Initiative), have designed the satellite to produce higher quality images at one-meter resolution, which can serve various applications including environmental projects, urban planning, infrastructure, telecommunications and electricity projects.
 
Al Marri said that EIAST's goal is to empower Dubai's scientists and engineers. To this end it also recently announced plans for DubaiSat-3, which will initially be designed in conjunction with Satrec Initiative, but will then be wholly built in the UAE. EIAST is now working on clean room facilities that will enable it to build the new satellite.
 
"We are not focused on making money from its imagery necessarily, but in using the satellite to develop new technologies in the country and to engage our next generation of scientists and aerospace engineers," Al Marri said.
 
Meanwhile, DubaiSat-1's imagery is being used both in the UAE and internationally. EIAST's Omran Anwar Sharaf said that DubaiSat-1 imagery had been used to study the effects of the so-called "Red Tide" in the region – the algal bloom that has caused problems in the Gulf, threatening the quality of the beaches in the area and the water used by desalination plants.
 
"We want to educate people and spread awareness of how the images can be used in decision making," Sharaf said.
 
Sarah Amiri, EIAST's Head of Research and Development, added that space technology ticks all the right boxes in terms of developing the "intellectual capital of the country".
 
She added that it is perhaps time for the UAE to have its own Emirates-wide space policy and even a unified space agency.

 

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