1. Is EIAST a government entity?
EIAST was established by Dubai Government Decree in 2006 and is a Dubai Government Entity.
2. What does EIAST stand for?
EIAST (pronounced as a single word) stands for the Emirate Institution for Advanced Science and Technology
3. Why was EIAST established?
EIAST was established by the Dubai Government as part of a strategic initiative to promote scientific innovation, space technology advancement and to inspire sustainable development in the UAE. EIAST is developing a core team of UAE scientists and experts to position the nation as a global leader in the field of science and technology.
4. When was the first satellite launched?
DubaiSat-1 was launched successfully on July 29th, 2009, using a Dnepr launch vehicle from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan. The Satellite was inserted into a 680 Km altitude sun-synchronous polar orbit.
5. What do your satellites do?
DubaiSat-1 is an optical earth observation satellite. It has a swath of 20 km and captures images at 2.5 m resolution. DubaiSat-1 has tilting capabilities of up to 45 degrees and sensors with 4 bands (Red, Green, Blue and NIR).
6. Do you build them in the UAE?
Not currently, however we plan to do so in future. Currently they are built in South Korea in partnership with Satrec Initiative. As our program advances and our facilities become ready, we will start manufacturing the satellites in the UAE.
7. Do you launch the satellites from the UAE?
No, EIAST works on the manufacturing of the satellite, however the launching of these satellites is done by commercial launchers (Kosmotras ISC)
8. How many satellites do you own?
DubaiSat-1 has been in orbit since July 2009 and DubaiSat-2, is scheduled to be launched during 2013.
9. Where are your satellites controlled from?
Mission planning and the operating of the satellites are done from our grounds station in Dubai. We support the DubaiSat-1 mission among others and will be upgrading our capacity as our constellation grows.
10. How can we benefit from this satellite?
EIAST is using data from the satellite to assist in urban planning, monitor various environmental changes, assess and predict natural events such as sandstorms and fog, and also to determine the quality of water in the area. DubaiSat-1 images have contributed to aid and relief missions of disasters such as the floods in Pakistan (2010), Chilean mine collapse (2010), and the tsunami in Japan (2011). EIAST is committed to serve humanity in addressing natural calamities by leveraging our space based resources.
11. Do you manufacture the satellites or do you buy them?
Both DubaiSat-1 and 2 have been jointly developed by EIAST and Satrec-I of South Korea. EIAST has a team of 20 UAE national engineers, based in South Korea, working on the design and manufacturing of DubaiSat-2.
12. Who are your manufacturing partners?
Both DubaiSat-1 and 2 has been jointly developed with our partners in South Korea, Satrec Initiative.
13. How can I stay in touch and keep up to date with EIAST’s activities?
Visit our website at www.eiast.ae and follow us on Facebook and Twitter at www.facebook.com/EIAST and https://twitter.com/eiast respectively.
14. What are the services provided by EIAST?
- Applied Research and Development in Space
- Satellite Manufacturing and Systems Development
- Space Images & Value Added Services
- Ground station services and support
15. How does EIAST give back to the community?
EIAST supports a variety of research projects and provides data to Universities and Academic institutions within the UAE. The institution also works closely with a number of environmental agencies to support research such as water quality assessment, monitoring of red tide, water turbidity among others. EIAST supports the UN-SPIDER with satellite images from DS-1 in its efforts to manage natural disasters and rescue missions.