Dubai heads to Mars, announces 2117 colonisation plans

0 0

By Matthew Griffin Space 16th February 2017

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Dubai and the UAE aren’t just shining a light on the future, they’re building it, and now their latest ambition is to colonise Mars

Earlier this week Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the leader of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) joined Elon Musk, Boeing, and NASA ,who recently showed off their new Mars habitat concept and Mars mining robot, in announcing his plans to colonise Mars within the next 100 years under a project dubbed “Mars 2117 Project.”

“The landing of people on other planets has been a longtime dream for humans. Our aim is that the UAE will spearhead international efforts to make this dream a reality,” he said, “the new project is a seed that we plant today, and we expect future generations to reap the benefits, driven by its passion to learn to unveil a new knowledge.”

However, while the UAE are busy unveiling and embracing everything from robot police and sky taxis to Hyperloop networks, and now colonies on Mars you can’t help but think that the latter two, which have Elon Musk’s fine fingerprints all over them already – namely because he famously invented the Hyperloop and then announced plans to colonise Mars himself – is the emirates latest attempt to out gun, out think and out awesome the rest of the planet. Elon Musk style… and that might be no bad thing.

The gallery was not found!

Dubai has already invested $5.4 billion in its UAE Space Agency (USA), created in 2014, which was originally proposed as a Pan-Arab Space Agency similar to Europe’s ESA, who’ll start building a Moon base this year, that works in partnership with the National Centre of Space Studies of France and the UK Space Agency.

The UAE’s first launch is planned to for 2021 in the form of a probe that will be sent ahead to scout the red planets martian surface and initially the Mars 2117 project will begin with an Emirati team of scientists before expanding internationally, a statement said. Over the coming decades it will explore how to travel to the planet faster, as well as how to meet human needs for food, transport and energy on Earth’s neighbour.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, multi-award winning Futurist and named Futurist of the Year 2024, has been described as a "Walking encyclopaedia of the future" by NASA and a futurist polymath. One of the world's most renowned futurists and strategic foresight experts Matthew is the 15 times author of the blockbuster "Codex of the Future" series, and is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years, XPotential University, the world's first free futures and foresight university, and the World Futures Forum which works with the United Nations to solve the worlds greatest challenges. Matthew is an in demand international keynote, acclaimed university lecturer and mentor, and host of the hit Fanatical Futurist podcast.

A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and run several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world's most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, Dow, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others. He was also the only futurist invited to talk at the UN COP28 held in Dubai alongside world leaders.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.