The UAE’s achievements in 2020 have proven that the ‘Year of preparations for the next 50 years’ will significantly contribute to the country’s development process. Despite the difficult circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE has succeeded in turning challenges into opportunities for innovation and development. These achievements include limiting the spread of COVID-19, launching the probe named Hope to Mars, and operating the first nuclear power plant.
The probe named Hope (Al Amal in Arabic), blasted off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre on 20 July 2020, and in about 200 days from that date, the spacecraft will reach the orbit of Mars and begin its mission to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere. When the probe enters the Martian orbit in the first quarter of 2021, the UAE would be celebrating the Golden Jubilee of its formation.
The probe will travel 493 million kilometres into space and will orbit the Red Planet for one full Martian year of 687 days to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere. Hope will be the first probe to study the Martian climate throughout daily and seasonal cycles. It will observe the weather on Mars and the famous massive dust storms that have been known to engulf the Red Planet, as compared to the short and localized dust storms on earth. The project involved nearly 200 Emirati engineers and researchers, who worked hard for six years to fulfil the UAE's dream to reach the Red Planet.
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We have lift-off. H2A, the rocket carrying the Hope Probe to space, has launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan.#HopeMarsMission pic.twitter.com/wjuFX3G1TP
— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) July 19, 2020
The UAE succeeded in limiting the spread of COVID-19 through a range of preventive and curative measures, such as developing a laser-based DPI (Diffractive Phase Interferometry) technology to detect COVID-19 cases, using the stem cell therapy for patients and inventing a vaccine. Read about the UAE Government’s efforts to limit the COVID-19 on the following pages:
In Abu Dhabi, screening of people and other preventive measures helped to limit the spread of COVID-19. In Abu Dhabi city, 0.3 per cent of people tested were confirmed to have COVID-19, in the Al Dhafra region, 0.4 per cent people and in Al Ain city, 0.6 per cent of people tested were confirmed to have COVID-19.
Screening initiatives & preventive measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 have led to a drop in confirmed cases across the emirate per tests conducted, confirmed the Abu Dhabi Emergency Crisis & Disasters Committee, with Abu Dhabi City at 0.3%, Al Dhafra 0.4% & Al Ain 0.6%. pic.twitter.com/4SUFBMEVtd
— مكتب أبوظبي الإعلامي (@admediaoffice) August 4, 2020
On 1 August 2020, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation announced that its operating and maintenance subsidiary, Nawah Energy Company (Nawah), successfully started Unit 1 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy plant, located in the Al Dhafrah Region of the Abu Dhabi emirate.
When all four units of the plant start operating commercially, the plant will produce up to 25 per cent of the country's electricity requirements while in parallel preventing the release of 21 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, equivalent to the removal of 3.2 million cars from the UAE’s roads annually.
The plant highlights the UAE’s efforts to build the capacities of national cadres in the energy sector. Nearly 244 employees work for the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation with 67 percent being Emiratis and out of which 45 per cent are in leading and managerial positions. Women also account for over 40 per cent of the authority’s employees.
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The safe start-up of Unit 1 of the Barakah Plant is a great moment of pride, and brings us another step closer to emissions-free electricity to power the future growth of our Nation. Read more here https://t.co/M5KXUMnnFC
— Emirates Nuclear (@ENEC_UAE) August 1, 2020
#BarakahDream pic.twitter.com/VZU5IETg8L
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