ASM
DubaiSat-2
Dubai will orbit a second Earth observation satellite in the second half of 2012.
Plans to develop two more satellites are also on the cards, according to a report in Maktoob Business.
The new satellite is called DubaiSat-2. If a further two are also approved, they will be called DubaiSat-3A and DubaiSat-3B.
The Emirates Institute for Advanced Science and Technology launched the United Arab Emirates' first earth observation satellite, the $50 million DubaiSat-1, in July 2009. The satellite was built by the Satrec Initiative in South Korea. The payload is the Medium Aperture Camera. It delivers 2.5 metre pan and 5 metre multispectral information. Both satellites have been paid for by the Dubai government. However, in August 2009, the UAE started mulling a national space agency.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates, of which Dubai is one.
The institute's project manager, Salem Humaid al-Marri, said that even though institute was funded by the Dubai government, it would work with the UAE.
'In the future there will be a UAE federal space agency, and we want the institute to to be a big part of it,' he said.
It is not clear whether the cost of the DubaiSat-3 birds would be born by the UAE or by the Dubai government.
EIAST has about 60 employees, all of them Emiratis. Its satellite is not used for military reconnaissance, according to staff at the institute.
'With DubaiSat-2, we can expand and make a much bigger satellite with more advanced capabilities,' al-Marri, said.
'DubaiSat-2 will be technologically more advanced than its predecessor and will have more commercial application. It will produce higher resolution images. He added that these images will be commercially available'.
