Space Scientists from the UAE and the UK discuss the missions they're involved in and what they mean to them.
Sarah Amiri is the lead scientist for the UAE's Mars Mission. Their plan is to send an unmanned spacecraft, the 'Hope', to reach Mars in 2021, where it will provide unprecedented data on the Martian climate, and also send a message to the youth of the region that there are paths available to them in science, rather than radicalism. Sarah says the people working on the Hope mission are all under 35, and 34% of them are women.
Monica Grady is a prominent British space scientist, known for her work on Beagle 2 and the international Rosetta mission, which aimed to find out where life on Earth came from. In 2014, when the robot probe Philae successfully landed on a comet, a video of Monica's hugely excited reaction went viral on the internet. She says it's no wonder she was so happy - this mission had been part of her life for 30 years.
Image: (LHS) Sarah Amiri and (RHS) Monica Grady Credit: n/a