ABUDHABI: Satellites of Dubai and the UK will work together soon to support many Dubai projects, including Smart Government, UK officials told Gulf News on Tuesday.
DubaiSat, the satellite launched by Dubai, and Deimos, the satellite of Deimos Space UK Ltd, will work together to feed information to the [Dubai] government, Philip Davies, managing director of Deimos, said in an interview.
Both satellites can take high-resolution images of Dubai periodically to monitor the changes in buildings and roads [and new constructions], agricultural areas, vegetation, water in reservoirs, etc, he said.
“For example, to build a new road, you have to update the digital map of the country. [This project will help such updates],” Davies said.
The satellite data will be fed to the government periodically. That information will help the government in its projects, including Smart Government, the executive said.
The one-year project is expected to start on June 1. An agreement on the project is expected to be signed in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday between Deimos and the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), Davies said. MBRSC was not immediately available for comment.
Dr David Parker, Chief Executive of UK Space Agency, told Gulf News that the joint project is under the umbrella of cooperation between UK Space Agency and the UAE Space Agency. “We expect more such cooperation in future,” he said.
They spoke to Gulf News on the sidelines of the first day of the fifth Global Space and Satellite Forum (GSSF 2015) hosted by the UAE Space Agency in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
Dr Mohammad Al Ahbabi, Director-General of UAE Space Agency, said in his opening remarks that when the UAE started building satellites a few years ago, their range was limited to the UAE and the Gulf region but now the UAE’s satellites cover even America.
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