## UAE: Currency Notes — Reaching for the Red Planet

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [UAE: Currency Notes — Reaching for the Red Planet](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/september/currency-notes-uae.pdf)

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### Overview
- In 2020, a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Arab Emirates’ space agency launched its first mission to Mars.
- The 1,000 dirham note depicts the UAE’s Mars spacecraft “Hope.”

### The Hope mission and achievements
- The spacecraft “Hope” was the first from an Arab nation to reach the red planet.
- “Hope” is currently in orbit for one Martian year—the equivalent of 687 days on Earth—providing scientists a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere.
- The UAE is the fifth country to reach Mars.
- The UAE is only the second country in the world (after India) to successfully launch a probe into orbit on the first attempt.
- The mission followed the formation of the UAE space agency six years earlier.

### National vision and long-term goal
- The UAE’s ultimate goal is to be the first country to build a sustainable colony on the red planet in the next 100 years.
- The space program vision is inspired by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father, who invested heavily in the sciences and met with astronauts from several of the Apollo missions.

### Currency note design, awards, and circulation
- The latest issue of the 1,000 dirham note depicts Sheikh Zayed looking at the UAE’s Hope space shuttle.
- The note features a portrait of an astronaut in the security foil on the front and back.
- The note went into circulation in December 2022.
- The note was named “Best New Banknote” at the industry’s High Security Printing EMEA Conference for its design and advanced security features.
- In December 2022, the UAE launched the Arab world’s first lunar rover.

### Human capital and inclusiveness in the Mars program
- About 90 percent of the Emirati Mars team is younger than 35.
- A third of the Emirati Mars team are women.
- Omran Sharaf, the Mars mission project manager, emphasized motivation in a 2019 TEDx Talk with the quote: “The oil age will not end because we run out of oil,” he said, “it will end because of progress...It’s about survival.”
- Sharaf also said: “If the UAE is able to reach Mars in less than 50 years, you [the youth] can do much more.”

*currency-notes-uae*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2023/september/currency-notes-uae.pdf_