united arab emirates

Space tourism is coming to the Middle East, as Abu Dhabi-based Aabar investments announced today it has taken a $280 million, 32 percent stake in Virgin Galactic. As part of the deal, which is still pending regulatory approval, Aabar plans to build a spaceport in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and will have rights to all Virgin Galactic traffic in that region. Aabar is also setting aside $100 million to build a small satellite launching facility, suggesting that the team plans to use the spaceport as a base for scientific research as well as space tourism.

The United Arab Emirates is a small federation of seven states on the southern end of the Persian Gulf. Its reserves of oil and natural gas have allowed the nation to prosper economically. In recent years, the country has seen a boom in massive constructions: The world's tallest skyscraper is scheduled to be completed in late 2008. Other superlatives include the world's largest mall, an indoor ski slope and a series of man-made islands off the coast made from dredging hundreds of millions of tons of sand from the Gulf's bottom.

Camel racing has long been popular in the Middle East, but the sport has come under scrutiny for its practice of employing little boys as jockeys. Many of these children were kidnapped or otherwise illegally brought into employment in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from foreign countries, including Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Faced with pressure from human-rights groups, Qatar has outlawed the practice of hiring child jockeys and passed a law requiring all riders to be at least 18 years of age.

For Peter Diamandis, boring old space just isnt good enough anymore. After his foundations X Prize competition resulted in the first non-government manned space mission in world history, Diamandis apparently needs more.

Last week, the X Prize Foundation released the draft rules governing its new $2 million Lunar Lander Challenge. The competition has been designed to simulate the demands of a lunar voyage, including a landing and return flight. The rules for the most demanding of the two contest divisions call for a rocket-powered craft to take off, maintain a steady altitude for 180 seconds, then land at a second point simulating the lunar surface no less than 100 meters away. Teams will then have 30 minutes to refuel their craft before launching it again from the landing point, flying it for another 180 seconds before landing it at the initial launch area.

Since Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt pulled in the ladder on Apollo 17 in 1972, only a handful of spacecraft have touched down on the moons surface—none of them carrying human passengers. And while the competition rules do not call for living cargo, a privately-funded trip to the moon is slowly beginning to sound less like the ravings of 1950s pulp science fiction and more like an attainable reality. (Since PopSci last covered Space Adventures CEO Eric Andersons lunar tourism dreams, his company has announced plans to build private spaceports in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates).

The competition is scheduled to go down before the end of the year. So those readers with any spare liquid-burning rocket motors or Lunar Lander mock-ups laying around in the garage, nows the time to dust them off and get to work. Check out the rules here. —John Mahoney

121.5 Number of years since Venus last crossed between Earth and the Sun, making it visible to the naked eye


8 Number of years until the next Venus transit


5 billion + Estimated number of people who will be able to see all or part of the 2004 transit. People in the western U.S., Hawaii and New Zealand are out of luck until 2012


23° N, 55° W Best view, just south of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates


Sun Filter Equipment necessary to view transit without eye damage

What: The world’s tallest building
Where: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Cost: $1 Billion †$2 billion
Crux: A 2,000-foot-high building capable of withstanding 120-mph winds.

What: The largest man-made offshore islands

Where: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Cost: $3.5 billion

Crux: Two islands built in the shape of giant palm trees. The “trunks” are 5 miles long, each topped by 17 “fronds” up to 330 feet long. A third island group is shaped like a flat map of the globe. Materials: 4.2 billion cubic feet of dredged sand and 50 million tons of rock.