Forget the ultra-luxury ‘Moon’ resort project slated for development in Dubai; the Emirate’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) is reportedly moulding a mega project to simulate life on the Red Planet – Mars.

This comes as a part of the nation’s plan to build a colony on Mars by the year 2117; albeit, there’s a catch: life will be simulated through the Metaverse.

While the plan is far from the interplanetary mission currently worked upon by the MBRSC, OERLive learns that the space agency will be teaming up with BEDU – a Dubai-based pioneer in Web3 technologies.

The consortium will work together to develop the 2117 Metaverse, which is expected to include virtual experiences that “capture the sensations of being in space and setting foot on the Red Planet” as well as create awareness of the challenges of exploration and colonisation of an alien planet.

In a statement to the press, Adnan al-Rais, the Program Manager of the Mars 2117 at MBRSC, was quoted as saying: “As we set our sights on ever more challenging destinations for exploration with humans and robots, innovative ideas and future thinking will be critical to helping us reach new milestones.”

“Concepts like this will be supported by MBRSC as we believe this will help us expand our scope of bigger possibilities.”

MBRSC will work closely with experts from BEDU to collaborate on the ideation, creative development, and visualisation of the 2117 metaverse elements.

Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk have devoted great interest in travelling and colonising Mars

This is the space agency’s first foray into the virtual arena following its progressive plans to build a human colony on Mars in just 100 years. Since then, the space agency developed and sent its Hope spacecraft to study the planet’s atmosphere and photograph key areas on its surface. A trip to the planet is understood to take up to seven months.

The UAE, in its grand interstellar vision, also plans to build a US$136mn mega science city in Dubai to simulate first-hand the conditions on Mars. Its friendly neighbour, the Sultanate of Oman, is also reportedly working on creating its own space settlement centre to attract scientific studies and activities.

The MBRSC aims to land a rover on the Moon later this year in a much-awaited project that will spearhead the GCC into advanced territories in research and development that were previously held together by developed nations in the west.