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A mosaic image taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit’s panoramic camera in 2004. Source: News Limited
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NO longer content with creating strange new worlds at home, the United Arab Emirates has set its sights on the final frontier — announcing plans to send a spaceship to Mars by 2021, boldly going where no Arab has gone before.
Within seven years, the small Gulf state known primarily for its skyscrapers and shopping malls, aims to send an unmanned probe 60 million kilometres to the red planet.
For any other country that has no space program, the schedule might seem ambitious. As locals noted wryly, its desert provides the perfect backdrop for hoax footage if the Mars mission fails. But failure was not on the agenda, as the rulers set out plans to launch a domestic space program with global partners.
“Despite all the tensions and the conflicts across the Middle East, we have proved today how positive a contribution the Arab people can make to humanity,” said the ruler of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.