Over the past few decades, oil and gas revenue has helped the UAE develop at a breakneck pace. It’s glistening megacity Dubai is now home to the world’s tallest building and countless other accolades, while just last year there were new plans announced to build a completely new “city of happiness”.

The UAE’s latest venture may set new heights in terms of ambition, however. Recently, at the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai, the UAE announced that it was planning to build the first city on Mars by 2117.

In a statement, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and vice president of the UAE, sounded confident about the project. “Human ambitions have no limits, and whoever looks into the scientific breakthroughs in the current century believes that human abilities can realise the most important human dream,” Maktoum said.

And despite the grandiose nature of the idea, the 100-year-plan does emphasise some practical steps. “The Mars 2117 Project is a long-term project,” Maktoum explained in the statement, adding that the first order of business would be making space travel appeal to young Emiratis, with special programmes in space sciences being set up at universities in the UAE.

The project will also create an Emirati scientific team, but that would expand to include international scientists. This won’t be the Gulf state’s first foray into space travel. The UAE launched its own space agency in 2014, which launched partnerships with French and British space agencies the next year. It is planning to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021, a project that was described as “on track” just last month.

—By arrangement with The Washington Post

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2017