Dubai: «The Gulf»
Yesterday, Monday, General David Hurley, Governor-General of Australia, visited the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center, and was received by Salem Humaid Al Marri, Director General of the Center, and a number of senior officials.
During his visit, General Hurley was briefed on many of the center’s current and future initiatives and projects. Al Marri gave a detailed explanation about the satellite program, the Emirates Astronaut Program, the Emirates Mars Exploration Project, and the Emirates Moon Exploration Project.
Salem Al Marri touched on the ambitious initiative “Mars 2117 Project”, which is part of the Emirates National Space Program, and includes an integrated scientific conception of the first human settlement on the planet to be in the form of a small city.
He was accompanied on a tour that included a visit to the space laboratories and the center’s control room, during which he was accompanied by Heidi Venamore, Australian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Ian Halliday, Australian Consul General in Dubai, Warren King, Deputy Ambassador, Tim Carlson, Second Secretary at the Embassy, and Kelly Matthews, Trade Commission Adviser, and Mounir Sankari, Consul and Trade Commissioner.
Al-Marri stressed the center’s approach and its keenness to establish joint cooperation relations to exchange and disseminate knowledge with brotherly and friendly countries, for the benefit of all humanity, and to provide space research to be available to everyone, especially future generations, citing the provision of data and images collected by the “Hope Probe”. In front of researchers and scientists in all international space agencies.
For his part, General David Hurley, Governor-General of Australia, expressed his happiness for the good reception he received from the center’s officials, and praised his scientific efforts and future projects that inspire future generations and enrich human knowledge in the space sector to enable everyone to explore it.
At the end of the visit, the two parties exchanged gifts. Salem Al-Marri presented the guest with a symbolic gift, a quantity of Ghaf tree seeds, which Hazza Al Mansouri, the first Emirati astronaut, carried with him to the International Space Station during his historic space flight. For his part, Hurley presented the center with seeds of the Australian national tree known as the “Acacia tree”, which also arrived at the International Space Station as part of the “Asian Seeds in Space” program, in which the United Arab Emirates and Australia participate.