There will also be Italy on board the United Arab Emirates Space Agency's Ema space mission, which will depart on March 3, 2028 to hunt for primordial asteroids: on the probe there will be, in fact, the Italian Mist-A instrument financed by the Italian Space Agency in collaboration with the National Institute of Astrophysics, which leads the Italian science team, and several companies. The instrument will be tasked with studying the surface composition and physical properties of asteroids, mapping them in the infrared wavelength: the goal of the mission, in fact, is to better understand the origin and evolution of these objects, also paving the way for the possibility of extracting useful resources from them. The Italian device shares the design and some components with another one from Asi currently aboard Juno, the Nasa probe orbiting Jupiter. This mission represents a great opportunity for Italy since it is the first collaboration with the United Arab Emirates in the field of Solar System exploration.
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