Author Topic: UAE space agency  (Read 44075 times)

Offline plutogno

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UAE space agency
« on: 07/16/2014 04:30 pm »
according to the French daily Le Monde, the United Arab Emirates are to set up their national space agency, aiming at sending a probe to Mars in 2021. UAE investments in space are said to be of the order of $4 billion
http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2014/07/16/les-emirats-arabes-unis-veulent-envoyer-une-sonde-sur-mars-en-2021_4458190_1650684.html

Offline Lar

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #1 on: 07/16/2014 05:12 pm »
Presumably they are going to use someone else's launcher rather than develop their own? Wonder who would be interested in the business?
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline majormajor42

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #2 on: 07/17/2014 01:42 pm »
Presumably they are going to use someone else's launcher rather than develop their own? Wonder who would be interested in the business?

Presumably so. I think that is the hope of many who might be selling.

Would they want their own launch facility? May have a suitable spots on the Gulf of Oman coast.

Isn't it the hope of companies such as Bigelow, that wealthy countries like the UAE will come to them for services? If a mission to Mars is about proving something (national/regional prestige?), does paying for someone else's rocket, at someone else's launch pad, to maybe one day go to someone else's station,... really that prestigious? I guess I'm hoping the answer is yes?
...water is life and it is out there, where we intend to go. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man or machine on a body such as the Moon and harvest a cup of water for a human to drink or process into fuel for their craft.

Offline mrhuggy

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #3 on: 07/17/2014 05:47 pm »
Well by the looks of it it's a falcon with 3 boosters and a Orion.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bI8rsM6Qvpo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Offline majormajor42

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #4 on: 07/17/2014 06:27 pm »
Well by the looks of it it's a falcon with 3 boosters and a Orion.



not crossfed but they do have legs!
...water is life and it is out there, where we intend to go. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man or machine on a body such as the Moon and harvest a cup of water for a human to drink or process into fuel for their craft.

Offline ncb1397

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #5 on: 07/17/2014 09:20 pm »
Presumably they are going to use someone else's launcher rather than develop their own? Wonder who would be interested in the business?

Presumably so. I think that is the hope of many who might be selling.

Would they want their own launch facility? May have a suitable spots on the Gulf of Oman coast.

Isn't it the hope of companies such as Bigelow, that wealthy countries like the UAE will come to them for services? If a mission to Mars is about proving something (national/regional prestige?), does paying for someone else's rocket, at someone else's launch pad, to maybe one day go to someone else's station,... really that prestigious? I guess I'm hoping the answer is yes?

Who says it is about national prestige? Pulling out a wad of hundred dollar bills, having your own private space yacht or wearing 40 million dollars in bling is its own form of prestige.

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #6 on: 07/18/2014 07:04 am »
Their rocket has three boosters. I initially thought they were heading to the Moon, but this looks to be a Mars probe. I don't think the flag on the upper stage nozzle would be there for long due to the heat from the engine.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #7 on: 07/18/2014 07:42 am »
Definitely looks like a F9, has the legs and 9 engines, but 3  boosters!!. We maybe looking at a 70t FSH ( super heavy).

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #8 on: 07/18/2014 07:47 am »
Just remembered Chris said SpaceX had some news to announce after Orbomm launch, maybe this is it! All speculation of course but rumours have to start somewhere.

Offline NovaSilisko

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #9 on: 07/18/2014 08:07 am »
That must be a really tough flag they've got stuck on the engine bell  ;)

I do hope that the inaccuracies here are just a case of the graphics guy being a bit confused, with no implications for the rest of the agency :P

I have my doubts spacex is involved and the "falcon heavy++" in the video is likely just a lot of artistic license.

Would be nice to see billions flowing to space exploration as opposed to silly sand islands that keep sinking!
« Last Edit: 07/18/2014 08:25 am by NovaSilisko »

Offline Zed_Noir

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #10 on: 07/18/2014 08:29 am »
Does the PLF in the video look like the current one SpaceX is using?

Was unclear if the spacecraft is an orbiter or a lander from the video.


Offline Ludus

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #11 on: 07/19/2014 03:35 am »
I suspect the guys they got to do the video just took existing 3D models of F9R and Orion and cobbled it together so it would look a little different before rendering it. The customer probably didn't realize those decorative arrow shapes around the core bottoms would be instantly recognizable to anybody with a minimal interest in rockets.

Hard to imagine UAE trying to develop it's own expendable launcher much less a SpaceX style reusable one, especially since they couldn't be bothered to even make an original 3d model for their video.

They would make a good customer for SpaceX FHR/Red Dragon though. A few billion dollars would buy a whole Mars exploration program with multiple missions. Everything could be appropriately plastered with UAE flags and Arabic Script.

Offline Lar

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #12 on: 07/19/2014 03:54 am »
Musk wants lots of launch sites so maybe (ITAR not withstanding) SpaceX might get into the business of developing sites for others, with the proviso they can use them to or something similar. We have speculated that the "engine department" will be kept busy rather than shed... once Merlin is done, they started on Raptor, and once Raptor is done, they start on something else, continuously cranking out new designs.

Perhaps SpaceX has decided the same thing could eventually be true for other parts of the company. Maybe the teams that are currently working on 39A and Boca Chica... albeit at way different stages, BC is more land acquisition followed by basic infrastructure work,much earlier in the process, so perhaps the 39A crew could descend on it once that was done, as the BC land/infra team goes on to the next facility location (Georgia?), while the 39A crew shifts to Chica to do the GSE/erectors/hangars/control rooms, etc and so on in succession. Thus keeping crews busy. Once SpaceX has enough pads (and presumably has done the process improvement on pad creation that they presumably would want to do) keep the crew busy building national ones.

Thin gossamer but not completely impossible.  We'll see
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline MP99

Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #13 on: 07/19/2014 02:12 pm »
Definitely looks like a F9, has the legs and 9 engines, but 3  boosters!!. We maybe looking at a 70t FSH ( super heavy).
Not FH, but MCT? ;-)

Cheers, Martin

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #14 on: 07/20/2014 12:56 am »
They will be struggling to send anything to Mars by 2021 if UAE are planning to develop their own LV from scratch. I'm picking they will use somebody else's LV and develop the payload themselves.
If it is somebody else's LV then the video indicates SpaceX but 3 boosters!!.
« Last Edit: 07/20/2014 12:56 am by TrevorMonty »

Offline Lar

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #15 on: 07/20/2014 03:10 am »
They will be struggling to send anything to Mars by 2021 if UAE are planning to develop their own LV from scratch. I'm picking they will use somebody else's LV and develop the payload themselves.
If it is somebody else's LV then the video indicates SpaceX but 3 boosters!!.
That 3 booster thing HAS to be notional, someone playing with KSP too much.  May or may not be SpaceX, who knows but ITAR says it would be hard.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline Eric Hedman

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Offline majormajor42

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #17 on: 07/21/2014 04:05 pm »
Would be nice to see billions flowing to space exploration as opposed to silly sand islands that keep sinking!

I hope, for their sake,  they don't build a new launch facility on a sand island then.

Would the East coast of the UAE be a good place for a facility? Is India far enough away at the right angle?
...water is life and it is out there, where we intend to go. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man or machine on a body such as the Moon and harvest a cup of water for a human to drink or process into fuel for their craft.

Offline GClark

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #18 on: 07/21/2014 07:10 pm »
Would the East coast of the UAE be a good place for a facility? Is India far enough away at the right angle?

The Khor Fakkan-Fujayrah area is rather more mountainous than the Persian Gulf side of the UAE.

Anything launched from there would have to fly down the coast and then dogleg to the south to avoid India.

They would be better off to go with something like SeaLaunch - they have the money for it.

Offline bubbagret

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Re: UAE space agency
« Reply #19 on: 01/28/2015 08:03 pm »

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