Since the Abraham Accords – the series of treaties normalizing diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco signed between August and December, 2020, there have been some impressive implementations.  

Among the most forward-looking agreements in honor of Abraham – the patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam – is a new one involving cooperation in space research between Israel and the UAE. 

The research proposals will deal with dealing with the global climate crisis and environmental research and will be based on data from the Israeli-French Venus satellite

The UAE and Israel have never fought militarily, but the UAE did participate in the Arab League boycott against Israel, which had been in place since Israel’s establishment in 1948. The Abraham Accords were  the result of shared interests regarding threats posed by Iran’s regime and years of quiet/secret cooperation. The agreement has led not only to diplomatic ties, but also cultural exchanges and grassroots cooperation among people in both countries. 

All research proposals are shared by researchers from Israel and the UAE and will work to promote solutions to the Earth’s environmental and climate challenges from data collected from space. 

The Israel Space Agency in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the UAE Space Agency issued a first joint to invite research groups in the two countries to submit joint research proposals based on data collected from Venus for environmental and vegetation monitoring on Earth.

This project is the first cooperation between the countries in the field of space, as signed in the Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of Israel and the UAE in October 2021 in Dubai. 

The research proposals will involve the world climate crisis with a focus on the fields of precision agriculture and the study of water bodies. All research proposals will be based on data and information from the Venus satellite. 

The deadline for submitting proposals is March 16, 2022. All proposals submitted will be examined by a joint committee of Israel and the UAE that will select one project to fund. The selected project will receive a total funding of $200,000 for two years from the two countries’ space agencies. Israeli Space Agency and the UAE Space Agency

Israel’s Innovation, Science and Technology Minister of Innovation, Orit Farkash-Hacohen said: “The important cooperation between Israel and the UAE in space, which is being launched now, shows that technology connects peoples.” 

The joint research will help advance common issues between the UAE and Israel, including smart agriculture, advancing climate issues and more. 

Sarah Bint Yousif Al Amiri, the UAE minister for advanced technologies and chairman of the UAE Space Agency, noted that “governments sign agreements, but it is the people who make the peace. The agreement that has emerged today is further proof of that. Global collaborations are the key to leveraging space to protect the Earth. By partnering with other leading countries in space, we are contributing to expanding the global scientific knowledge base to help humanity develop solutions to its greatest challenges,” she said. 

For environmental research satellites, such as Venus, have had growing importance in light of the Earth’s environmental problems such as population density, dwindling lands for agriculture and natural disasters. Among other things, the Venus satellite monitors the condition of the soil, vegetation, forestry, agriculture and the quality of water in natural areas around the world. It can help farmers in terms of irrigation accuracy and precision agriculture.” 

The Venus satellite is equipped with a special camera that can capture details on the Earth in 12 wavelengths, including invisible details. The satellite photographs permanent and extensive areas in Israel and around the world. It already provides researchers around the world with dozens of images every day. The satellite trajectory allows enough time to return at a daily frequency to photograph the same areas and at the same viewing angle, which makes it possible to detect frequent changes in vegetation, soil, beaches, inland bodies of water and the atmosphere. 

The Venus satellite is about the size of a home refrigerator and weighs just 270 kilograms, but it is equipped with an electric propulsion system. 

Venus is the first Israeli civilian satellite initiated by the Israeli Space Agency in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology in collaboration with the French Space Agency and is considered the smallest of its kind in the world. Three Israeli companies were involved in the construction of the satellite. Israel Aerospace Industries, which integrated the camera and motors; the electric motors were designed and built by Rafael, while the camera was made by Elbit Electro-Optics (El Op). The images from the satellite arrive at the research center on the Sde Boker campus of Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev.