UAE mission to Mars is more about hype than science – Reuters

If the UAE’s Mars mission had wanted to cap its success this week by putting the Amal space probe into orbit around Mars with an equally dramatic and honest quote, it would have echoed Neil Armstrong by proclaiming, “One small step for humanity, a giant leap in UAE public relations. ”

Let’s give credit to UAE where credit is due. Sending a probe to Mars and putting it into orbit is a remarkable scientific and technical achievement, which only a handful of countries have achieved, including by chance China also this week. Amal’s task of mapping the atmosphere of Mars is a legitimate scientific endeavor.

But the mission is less about a Martian orbit than about the rotation of the UAE.

Like many other things the UAE does, especially its most sparkling member Dubai, it’s all about creating an image in the hope that looks will ultimately translate into reality. Build the biggest mall on the planet and the tourist shoppers will come. Label a hotel as a seven star property and you will become synonymous with over-the-top luxury. Establish branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim and you will be recognized as a center of art and culture. Send a mission to Mars and you are on your way to becoming a scientific powerhouse.

Creating this image is more important than science and engineering. Thus, plans are underway to build a Mars Science City outside of Dubai, which will be devoted to research and education, as well as entertainment. To improve her space credentials, Hazza Al Mansouri became the United Arab Emirates’ first astronaut, serving on the International Space Station in 2019.

The latest marketing campaign includes the semi-official story of the mission passed on to the media. It follows the usual Emirati scenario of a benevolent and far-sighted ruler (in this case, the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum) ordering a space mission and, hey, six years a courageous and determined team of young scientists and engineers. , launches an interplanetary probe.

Of course, this was done with a little help from their friends, a team of seasoned scientists and engineers from NASA, most of them from the University of Colorado. Who was in charge of Amal’s part is a guess, but given that six years ago there was hardly anyone in the UAE qualified to design a probe and plan a mission, I suspect the scales are turned. to friends.

Like the rest of the Arab world, the UAE suffers from a serious science deficit, although it is certainly wealthy enough to generously support this endeavor. It has many institutes of higher education, but their mission is to train graduates, not to conduct research. Very few of these graduates earn a doctorate and even fewer use their doctorate to pursue a career in research. In the Nature Index of World Science Organizations, the United Arab Emirates ranks 49 out of 50, ahead of Vietnam. In physics, it is even lower.

Unlike the rest of the Arab world (with a few exceptions, like Saudi Arabia), the UAE is at least trying to do something about the problem. The Mars mission is all about public relations, but at least PR is in the service of a good cause. The Emiratis want to build a high-tech economy and this will be very difficult to do without local research and development supported by a critical mass of scientists.

As Omran Sharaf, the mission’s project manager, told Nature last July when Amal was transported to space, the Mars mission is a self-aware mega project aimed at bringing about “a big change. of mentality ”. The driver “is not space, it is economical.”

There might have been cheaper, more practical ways to nurture a new generation of scientists, but that’s not how the UAE does it. Dubai could have built an ordinary skyscraper, but it spent $ 217 million to build the tallest in the world, the Burj al-Khalifa. The Mars mission would have cost $ 200 million, but unlike other showcase projects, the value of public relations was to brag about how little was spent, lest the critics be Emiratis buying their way into space. It may have cost over $ 200 million, but from the UAE’s point of view, it is money well spent.

That doesn’t mean the UAE can buy its way into science by funding research institutes, doctoral programs, and interplanetary exploration. The Saudis have been in this game for some time and the results are not very encouraging, even though they have a much larger pool of human capital. The kingdom still relies on foreign talent, smoke and mirrors to bolster its image as an emerging scientific powerhouse.

Modern science is all about the money, often in large quantities, but it also requires a culture that values ​​inquiry, a free exchange of ideas, and a willingness to dispense with old ones that do not stand up to scrutiny. . Israel’s scientific prowess, on the one hand, was not the result of generous funding and still thrives today without it.

Just as it hopes a mission to Mars will somehow spur a scientific renaissance, the UAE is hoping that relations with Israel will do the same. But it will take much more than this marketing and standardization.