Over the next five years, Mars will no longer be just another planet for the UAE. The Red Planet will be an integral part of every household, making the Emirates Mars Mission every UAE resident’s affair.

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced in May that the UAE would send the first Arab probe to Mars to create mankind’s first integrated model of the Martian atmosphere.

The unmanned probe will be launched in July 2020 just before the UAE’s 49th anniversary. Following an approximately 200-day journey, the probe is expected to enter Mars’ orbit in the first quarter of 2021 in time for the UAE’s 50th founding anniversary.

Five years before the 2020 launch, the team behind the mission said everything is on track.