< PreviousFEATURE / RED SEA 20 Vol. 21/13, July-August 2020 28,000 The Red Sea Project size in square kilometres – the same size as Belgium. for 15,000 workers. “We’ve already committed SAR 5.3 billion ($1.41 billion) of signed contracts that we are executing on site,” Pagano adds. The scale of the project, Pagano explains, presents golden opportunities for firms of various kinds – particularly in the construction and hospitality sectors – as well as for investors. As Pagano tells it, the scope of the project, taken alongside Saudi Arabia’s other “giga-projects” may present a once-in-a-lifetime chance. “Saudi Arabia is going to be one of the biggest spenders in capital programmes in the world. This is a perfect opportunity for a first mover to get in and establish a presence in order to avail themselves not only to our project, but ultimately to projects [across Saudi Arabia] that are going to continue for many years to come,” he explains. “We’re engaging all kinds of brands.” A protected environment As he discusses the project over a Zoom call from Saudi Arabia, Pagano takes pains to remind us – repeatedly – that he believes what differentiates The Red Sea Project from other regional developments is a commitment to sustainability and to the enhancement of the environment. As an example, Pagano points to a partnership with the nearby King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Together, KAUST and TRSDC are working to track a number of endangered – and increasingly rare – green and hawksbill turtles that are known to inhabit the area. Additionally, the project has is an island that they can do what they want with. That’s not our business model. “The whole of this lagoon has been classed as a critical habitat, and what happens in one part of the lagoon affects the entirety of it,” he adds. “All it takes is one rogue developer, and you spoil the whole thing. Once you’ve done that, you’ve ruined the most precious commodity that we have.” In what is perhaps unique among other large-scale developments in the Middle East, TRSDC has also turned to prefabrication to diminish its impact on the environment – putting the finished pieces into place like Lego blocks on-site. “In other words, we want to build completed units and bring them to site, and put them into position,” Pagano adds. “The reasons for doing pledged to pursue a policy of 100 percent renewable energy, as well as zero waste to landfill and a total ban on single-use plastics. TRSDC is also mulling over the idea of bringing in park rangers to patrol and protect the site’s more than 90 islands, 75 percent of which will remain undeveloped. This approach, Pagano says, is what guides the project and all its partnerships going forward. “We welcome like- minded partners who share our values and our beliefs, but we will control it,” he says. “So, the joint venture is with us. We don’t tell them there u A Red Sea Maldives? The project will create luxury, low-impact island experiences arabianbusiness.com 21 / RED SEA TRSDC is also working with KAUST to research Red Sea corals, which have not been subject to the same bleaching, overfi shing and pollution as coral in the Indian Ocean or the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of Australia. “We’re actually experimenting with them, with innovative coral growing techniques,” John Pagano explains. “We’re going to work to enhance our coral habitat. Not because we need more coral, as we have an abundance of it, but to help our understanding of it. We can look at what elements of their DNA make them more tolerant and resistant to temperature and global warming and the like. It will also create habitats to enhance our biodiversity.” Red Sea coral that are two-fold. For one, when you build in a factory environment, you’re going to get a much better quality of finish because it’s in a controlled environment. “But more importantly, we want to minimise our environmental footprint. This is especially true on the islands we want to protect. We’re going to use off-site manufacturing as a solution.” Why Saudi Arabia? When it comes to resorts and luxury destinations in the region, post-COVID travellers won’t be short of options. On the Red Sea alone, one could head to Egypt’s famous coastal towns such as Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh, or to Jordan’s Aqaba. Alternatively, one could head across the Arabian Peninsula to the UAE, or south to Oman. Rather than be challenged by the stiff competition in the region, Pagano says that The Red Sea Project will “complement” the region’s other offerings, rather than compete with them. Looking to the future, he says he believes that the project will attract a 50-50 split between international customers and Saudi and GCC visitors, particularly in the hot summer months when the UAE’s tourism sector traditionally sees decline. “When it comes to our international visitors, I think clearly Western Europe and Asia will probably top the list. Not everybody travels longer distances. But from a European perspective, I think we’re going to resonate extremely well,” he adds. “But we’ve also got our local market, and the GCC.” Aside from the combination of luxury and environmental possibilities – which he says are unique, even on the Red Sea – Pagano says he believes the climate will be one of the selling points that ultimately makes a difference when customers make a choice. “I’ve been to Dubai in the summer months. It’s quite warm and humid. The Red Sea is a totally different climate,” he remarks. “We don’t have the saturation, and we don’t have the excessive heat. I think our source markets will change throughout the year. Clearly, the winter months will be more attractive to Western Europeans and Asians, versus the summer months when I think it’ll be an attractive destination for GCC residents who want to escape the heat but not go too far.” The bigger picture There is still a long way to go to 2030. Looking ahead, however, Pagano is sure of one thing: that The Red Sea Project will be seen as an historic milestone as Saudi Arabia welcomes the world – an event that itself would have been unthinkable for foreign visitors just a few years ago. “It’s hugely important. The Kingdom is committed to growing tourism, and we’ll be a flagship destination for the industry,” he says. “But we’re going to contribute a relatively small number of visitors. We’re not mass market. “I think we’ve become a very important enabler and proof of concept,” he adds. “Saudi Arabia is going to be worth experiencing. The Red Sea Project will play a very important part in achieving that ambition.” “We want to minimise our environmental footprint. This is especially true on the islands we want to protect”Why the pioneering Emirates Mars Mission, which blasted off from Japan on July 20, is about so much more than an up-close view of the Red Planet TO MARS AND BEY OND By Gavin Gibbon FEATURE / MAR S 22 Vol. 21/13, July-August 2020 FEATURE / MAR S 22 Vol. 21/13, July-August 2020arabianbusiness.com 23 / MAR S/ MAR S arabianbusiness.com 23THE COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF across the UAE could arguably have launched the country’s Hope Probe itself shortly before 2am on July 20. After two postponed attempts due to the weather and an unfavourable forecast for the launch site at the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan, many would have been forgiven for thinking the Emirates Mars Mission, first announced in 2014, would be the latest addition to 2020’s seemingly interminable list of bad news. Yet the country’s leaders consistently repeat the mantra that nothing is impossible, everything is possible. And, in this case, so it proved. As the countdown clock ticked off the numbers on the world’s tallest building in Dubai, thousands of miles away the launch was lighting up the early morning sky in Japan as the rocket carrying the probe scorched away from its platform. Destination: Mars. Exulting the occasion, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan said: “We followed with great pleasure and pride today the news of the successful launch of Hope Probe, whose idea was developed within our national and research institutions and was designed and manufactured with the effective participation of a young national elite of bright minds – highly qualified and trained and sincere young Emiratis. “Hope Probe represents another high-quality, high-value addition to the UAE’s outstanding achievements that will enter history as a source of pride for the UAE and its people.” The Emirates Mars Mission, which has been six years in the making, represents the culmination of an innovative knowledge transfer and development programme between the UAE and several international partners. Working closely with US educational institutions such as the University of Colorado, the University of California-Berkeley and Arizona State University, Emirati scientists completed the Arab world’s first interplanetary space probe while laying the foundations for a sustainable and dynamic space exploration industry in the UAE. The 1,350-kilogramme (2,970- pound) probe – about the size of an SUV – successfully detached from the Japanese launch rocket about an hour after blast-off, with a UAE space official hailing the launch as an “important milestone for the UAE and the region”. Missons to Mars It is the latest in a long line of expeditions to the Red Planet. Several dozen probes have set off on the same trajectory u Onlookers at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai watch Hope Probe’s launch since the 1960s, and indeed two have already been launched this year. While Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States will attempt to land on its surface, the UAE’s probe will orbit it for a whole Martian year – 687 days, or just less than 23 months. Hope will take seven months to travel the 493 million kilometres to Mars, in time to mark the 50th anniversary of the emirates’ union in 2021.Once in orbit, one loop will take 55 hours at an average speed of 121,000kph, while contact with the UAE command and control centre will be limited to six to eight hours twice a week. Three instruments mounted on the probe will provide a picture of the Mars atmosphere throughout the Martian year. The first is an 2014 When the mission was devised, in the hope it would encourage scientifi c innovation in the UAE. FEATURE / MAR S 24 Vol. 21/13, July-August 2020u Engineers inspect a model of the KhalifaSat, which was launched in 2018 arabianbusiness.com 25 / MAR S How the UAE reacted to the mission to Mars “Hope Probe represents another high-quality, high-value addition to the UAE’s outstanding achievements that will enter history as a source of pride for the UAE and its people” Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and the Emir of Abu Dhabi “We rely on the UAE’s youth and they never disappoint... they have made us all proud and have ushered in a new era in our history. The journey has begun... and the mission has just commenced. Next stop: The Red Planet” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai “We watched the successful launch of the Hope Probe to Mars with pride and joy, as we embark on a new chapter in space, led by our exceptional youth. Congratulations to the UAE for this historic achievement” Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces “With the launch of the Hope Probe, the UAE is making a qualitative leap in its space exploration programme, positioning itself among the big achievers in space programmes, and sending a message of optimism and hope to millions of Arabs” Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Bowardi, Minister of State for Defence Affairs “The Emirates Mars Mission is inspiring a new generation of Arab youth to explore careers in science and technology, and opening up new frontiers of possibility for our region” Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the United States “It is very interesting that a country that did not have a space programme or a space agency until a just a few years ago, is now able to launch a probe to Mars” Simonetta Di Pippo, director of UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, UNOOSA Inspiring a nationinfrared spectrometer to measure the lower atmosphere and analyse the temperature structure. The second is a high-resolution imager that will provide information about ozone levels. And the third, an ultraviolet spectrometer, is set to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 kilometres from the surface. Examining and analysing the atmospheres of other planets will allow for a better understanding of the Earth’s climate, officials say. Omran Sharaf, the mission’s project manager, has said Hope Probe will offer a special perspective on the elusive Red Planet. “What is unique about this mission is that for the first time the scientific community around the world will have an holistic view of the Martian atmosphere at different times of the day at different seasons,” he told a pre-launch briefing. “We have a strategy to contribute to the global effort in developing technologies and science work that will help one day if humanity decides to put a human on Mars.” The UAE already has nine functioning satellites in orbit, and has plans to launch another eight in coming years. But the country’s ambitions go well beyond that, with a goal of building a human settlement on Mars, in collaboration with major international space institutions, by 2117. “I think we’ll get there,” said Dr Lori Glaze, planetary science division director at NASA. A broader purpose These are all bold, ambitious plans, but whether the Hope mission succeeds, or if the UAE can colonise the Red Planet or not, is almost secondary. The project has been designed to inspire a region and recall its heyday of scientific advances almost 1,000 years ago. Sharaf said in a recent interview with CNN: “Reaching Mars is not the main goal here, it’s a means to a much bigger goal. It’s about the future of our economy, about creating the post-oil economy – a creative, innovative and a competitive economy. “The UAE government wanted to inspire Emirati youth to go into STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and wanted to use this mission as a catalyst for change in multiple sectors, which includes the academic sector, the industrial sector and the economic sector.” In that respect, it can already be considered an overwhelming success. Officials have also pointed to the interest generated by Emirati superstar Hazza Al Mansouri, who 490m The number of kilometres the probe will travel on its journey to, and then around, Mars. u Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the offi cial ceremony to unveil UAE’s Mars Mission in 2015 FEATURE / MAR S 26 Vol. 21/13, July-August 2020 “We rely on the UAE’s youth and they never disappoint... they have ushered in a new era in our history”made history last year as the first UAE astronaut to travel to space.He returned home to a hero’s welcome after an eight-day mission in which he became the first Arab to visit the International Space Station, where he took part in scientific experiments including a time-perception study. Earlier this year it was revealed that there had been more than 3,000 applicants for the second edition of the programme, 33 percent of which had come from local women, a goal Al Mansouri had himself championed. “Emirati women inspire us every day. She is a pilot, an engineer, a doctor, mother, sister, wife and daughter. I believe that women can achieve anything they want by determination and persistence,” he said. Some 31 percent of the applicants were engineers – 28 percent of which were female engineers – and 17 percent were pilots. As part of the Mars Mission, Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Sciences, and deputy project manager and science lead of the UAE’s Mars Mission, Hope Probe, and her team conducted a lot of educational and outreach programmes for youngsters of various ages to offer in-depth knowledge on building the systems and the role of scientists, researchers and engineers in the space sector. Inspiring the future The Mars Mission has also resulted in a quantum leap for the UAE’s Mars science capability, with a programme designed to train young engineers at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in science data analysis and research. “We’ve also included research experience and arranged an apprentice programme for our engineering team abroad, where they worked with world-renowned scientists in the areas of research. They were also able to gain valuable experience, presenting u Sarah Al Amiri, deputy project manager of the UAE Mars Mission, outlines the objectives of Hope Probe arabianbusiness.com 27 / MAR S • For the fi rst time in history, the countdown for a space mission was also completed in Arabic. • The name “Hope”, or “Al-Amal” in Arabic, was found via a public campaign launched in April 2015 by Sheikh Mohammed. • The 200-day voyage will see the probe travel for seven months and more than 490 million kilometres at a cruise speed of 121,000 kmh. • The mission includes 150 Emirati engineers as well as 200 engineers and scientists at partner institutes in the United States. • It took 83 hours to transfer the Hope Probe from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre to Al Maktoum International Airport and on to the launch station in Japan. Hope Probe factstheir research outcomes in major conferences,” she says. “This has exposed our young people to all the possibilities of the science and technology sector and allowed them to select the areas that they are passionate about and where they will be able to create an impact,” she adds. Dr Fehmida Hussain, head of Computer Engineering and Informatics at Middlesex University Dubai, tells Arabian Business, that demand is already growing in the sector. “The launch of Hope Probe has certainly created a new era in the history of UAE’s scientific achievements. It is not merely the first Arab space mission to Mars, rather a true inspiration for our youth,” she said. “The UAE’s space programme acts as a catalyst for the growing STEM- based sector in the country, which has changed perceptions of students about careers in the field. Universities have and are working towards introducing specialised STEM degrees like physics, astronomy and space sciences,” she added. Further evidence of this is through the UAE’s Arab Space Pioneers programme, which attracted 37,000 applications in two weeks. Overseen by the UAE Space Agency, it aims to build Arab expertise in space science and technologies and empower the region’s talents in the creative and scientific industry to practice their passion in space-related studies. Egypt dominated the applications, with 19,391 seeking a place in the three-year programme, followed by Iraq (6,447), Algeria (4,836), Morocco (3,107), UAE (692), Jordan (681), Palestine (422), Syria (406), Tunisia (370) and Saudi Arabia (361). Transformational challenge The UAE’s Mars Mission will also inspire new projects and enterprises, including big companies and SMEs in all sectors to take risks and then find a way to succeed, according to Sarah Al Amiri. “When you talk about transforming the economy and developing science and technology, and building new companies and small and medium enterprises, it depends on the capability to take risks, mitigate them and come out with larger impacts,” she says. “There is a greater appetite for risk in the Mars Mission, which is a project that is five times more complex than any other space mission we have undertaken.” Dr Ellen Stofan, director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and former chief scientist of NASA, perhaps summed it up the best: “To every young girl, never allow anybody to say you cannot achieve greatness. Sit at the table where decisions are made and don’t allow anyone to say you do not belong. For young Emirati women, look to Sarah Al Amiri as a role model and inspiration.” 34% Of the 150 Emirati engineers that worked on the Hope Probe project, 51 were women. u Inside the control room of the Mars Mission at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre FEATURE / MAR S 28 Vol. 21/13, July-August 2020arabianbusiness.com 29 / MAR S “The launch of Hope Probe has certainly created a new era in the history of UAE’s scientifi c achievements. It is not merely the fi rst Arab space mission to Mars, but a true inspiration for our youth”Next >