to celebrate its independence and setting up, the United Arab Emirates is toying with expediting a vehicle From the dunes of Dubai to the soil of the Moon. Why not? Let us read this story from Gulf News of today.
UAE@51: From the dunes of Dubai to the soil of the Moon, Rashid Rover all set to make history
All you need to know about the UAE’s lunar mission that will take off on November 30
Rashid Rover’s core scientific mission is to better understand how lunar dust and rocks vary across the moon.Image Credit: Supplied
Dubai: In what is a huge feat ahead of the 51st UAE National Day, Emirati-made Rashid Rover will shoot to the Moon on Wednesday, November 30, at 12.39pm (Gulf Standard Time), carrying with it the pride and dreams of the UAE — and the entire Arab world.
From the desert dunes of the UAE to the soil of the Moon, the lunar rover — named after the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, builder of modern Dubai — will give mankind and the global scientific community more knowledge about Earth’s closest celestial neighbour.
It will land on Atlas Crater, located at 47.5°N, 44.4°E on the Moon’s southeastern outer edge of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold), and from there capture photos and collect information of the unexplored crater area and the vast basins on Moon’s surface that were formed billions of years ago.
Rashid Rover will study the characteristics of lunar soil, the petrography (composition and properties of lunar rocks) and geology of the Moon. It will also take photos of the moon’s dust movement, surface plasma conditions, and the lunar regolith (blanket of superficial deposits covering solid rocks).Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News
The UAE’s moonshot has lofty goals. According to Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC),“Rashid Rover will provide about 10 gigabytes of recorded material, scientific data and new images to the global scientific community to study the Moon.”
In particular, Rashid Rover will study the characteristics of lunar soil, the petrography (composition and properties of lunar rocks) and geology of the Moon. It will also take photos of the moon’s dust movement, surface plasma conditions, and the lunar regolith (blanket of superficial deposits covering solid rocks).
Rashid Rover will help scientists better understand how lunar dust and rocks vary across the Moon. It will also provide fresh data for the development of new technologies that can be used to unravel the origins of the Earth and our solar system.
The success of the first Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) will make the UAE the first Arab country and among the first countries in the world to land a spacecraft on the Moon, after the United States, former Soviet Union and China.
The success of the first Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) will make the UAE the first Arab country and among the first countries in the world to land a spacecraft on the Moon, after the United States, former Soviet Union and China.Image Credit: Supplied
MBRSC underlined: “The mission embodies the aspirations of the UAE. Rashid Rover will collect images and information that will allow the UAE to conduct comprehensive and integrated studies on how to build human settlement on the Moon, prepare for future missions to study Mars and provide the scientific community with answers about the solar system and other planets.”
Before lift-off, let us look back at the timeline, technical specifications, instruments, functionalities and other important details of the Emirati-made Rashid Rover.
Two years ahead
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, first announced Rashid Rover in September 2020, and the original goal was to land it on the Moon by 2024.
An image to show where Rashid Rover will land on the moon.
In April 2021, MBRSC signed a contract with ispace, inc., a Japanese private lunar robotic exploration company, to transport Rashid Rover to the Moon aboard Hakuto-R M1 (mission 1) lander. Under the terms of the agreement, ispace will also provide wired communication and power during the cruise phase and engage in wireless communication on the lunar surface.
Launch date
Lift-off is on Wednesday, November 30, at 12.39pm (Gulf Standard Time) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. But the date and time are subject to change, depending on weather and other conditions at launch, according to MBRSC.
Hakuto-R M1, which means ‘white rabbit’ in Japanese (it is said a white rabbit lives on the Moon, according to Japanese folklore), will also carry other payloads, including a transformable lunar robot from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; a test module for a solid-state battery from NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd., an artificial intelligence (AI) flight computer from Mission Control Space Services Inc., a multiple 360-degree camera from Canadensys Aerospace, a panel engraved with the names of Hakuto crowdfunding supporters, and a music disc containing the song ‘Sorato’ played by Japanese rock band Sakanaction.
Fuel-saving route
Once launched, the integrated spacecraft Hakuto-R M1 that will carry Rashid Rover and other payload to the Moon will take a low-energy route to the Moon rather than a direct approach. This means the landing on the Moon will take about five months after launch, in April 2023.
Dr Hamad Al Marzooqi, project manager of Emirates Lunar Mission at MBRSC, told Gulf News the rationale for the fuel-saving but long route. He said: “The main factor is the cost of the mission. The cost comes from the volume and mass of the spacecraft. In order to reach to the moon within six days – which is the shortest path – you would need to burn a lot of fuel which means that you need a big tank and a big propulsion system to do that.”
“But it will have a huge impact in cost so, in order to reduce the cost of the mission, ispace (our partner) has selected their approach that they can reach to the lunar surface within five months but it will be less costly because it will burn much less fuel. They will use a smaller tank and propulsion system, therefore the launch cost and the cost of developing the developing system will be lower,” he further explained.
Dimitra Atri, astrophysicist at New York University in Abu Dhabi, added: “In order to keep the prices of payload delivery attractive to customers, private companies reduce their expenses by choosing the lower cost option, which consumes less energy but takes much longer.”
Fully-automated landing
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take Hakuto-R M1 into the Moon’s orbit, and following its successful separation from the launch vehicle (rocket), Hakuto-R M1 will use the gravitational pull of the Earth and sun to guide it to the moon.
As it gets closer to the lunar surface, the Japanese-made lander will first orbit the moon with an increasingly elliptical trajectory, before angling itself vertically to softly land on the moon and perform a fully-automated landing.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take Hakuto-R M1 into the Moon’s orbit.Image Credit: AP
Hakuto-R M1 will then establish a steady telecommunication and power supply on the lunar surface after landing to support customer payload’s surface operations, including that of the UAE’s Rashid Rover.
Landing site
MBRSC confirmed Atlas Crater, located at 47.5°N, 44.4°E on the moon’s southeastern outer edge of Mare Frigoris (“Sea of Cold”), as Rashid Rover’s landing site.
MBRSC explained: “It was chosen to maintain flexibility during operations. Mare Frigoris lies in the far lunar north. The primary landing site was chosen along with multiple contingencies, which may be used depending on variables that occur during transit. The site meets the technical specifications of the lander technology demonstration mission and the scientific exploration objectives for the ELM mission.”
Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre.Image Credit: Supplied
Atlas Crater has a diameter of 88 kilometres, and believer to have been formed between 3.2 to 3.8 billion years ago. It is circular in shape and bounded by an intricately terraced rim wall. The crater is 2km deep and has a complex floor covered in hills and cracks.
Aside from Atlas Crater, alternative landing targets – according to ispace – include Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum, among others.
Compact rover
Designed and developed fully by an Emirati team, Rashid Rover is touted as the world’s most compact rover that could land on the Moon. Its height is 70cm, length is 50cm and width is 50cm. Its weight is approximately 10kg with payload, but it can climb over an obstacle up to 10cm tall and descend a 20-degree slope.
Because Rashid Rover has been delivered well ahead of the original 2024 deadline, building it required rapid prototyping. According to Al Marqoozi, engineers at MBRSC “went through five modules until they reached with the one” that will be launched on November 30.
Advanced cameras
The four-wheeled Rashid Rover has 3D cameras, advanced motion system, sensors, and communication system that are powered by solar panels. There are four cameras that move vertically and horizontally, including two main cameras, which are Caspex (camera for space exploration) that can withstand vibrations during launch and landing
MBRSC has partnered with French space agency CNES (National Centre for Space Studies) for the two Caspex that will be used analyse the properties of lunar soil, dust, radioactivity, electrical activities, as well as the rocks on the moon surface. One Caspex is installed on top of the rover’s mast to provide panoramic visibility of its surroundings while the rear-mounted CASPEX camera will deliver images of the lunar soil with high spatial resolution.
“Rashid Rover’s drive tracks will be analysed to determine wheel sinkage and to investigate the detailed wheel-soil interaction. Such data will be important to design the mobility systems of future rovers,” MBRSC noted.
Mission period
Rashid Rover will study the Moon’s surroundings for one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 days on Earth. But there is a chance Rashid Rover’s mission can be extended to another lunar day. Al Marzooqi earlier explained: “After the first lunar day the rover will go into a hibernation or mode sleep during the (lunar) night (which is also equivalent to 14 Earth nights) until the sun rises again and the temperature on the rover surface starts to rise again. And by that time, the team will try to “wake up” Rashid Rover to see if its systems were able to survive the low temperatures and ready for the second lunar day.
The Moon’s environment, however, is very harsh. The temperature drops to as low as negative 173 degrees Celsius, from as high as 127 degrees Celsius, when sunlight hits the Moon’s surface. But Rashid Rover is equipped with the latest technologies that can resist the lunar surface temperature.
To the Moon and back
Rashid Rover will not return to Earth. It’s a one-way flight and there is no transport that will bring back Rashid Rover and Hakuto-R. What Rashid Rover will bring back to Earth are multiple images – around 10 gigabytes of recorded material and scientific data. The ELM team at MBRSC will use these to test new technologies in material science, robotics, mobility, navigation and communications. The findings will also help in the design of future missions to survive and function in harsh space environment.
Rashid Rover is just the first of the UAE’s multiple missions to the Moon. A couple of months ago, in September, MBRSC signed an agreement with China National Space Administration (CNSA) to kickstart joint space projects and future lunar exploration, including sending the next UAE rover aboard Chang’e 7, a robotic Chinese lunar exploration mission expected to be launched in 2026 to target the Moon’s south pole.
The 3rd MENA Innovation and Technology Transfer Summit, as reported by Al Arabiya English, is on this fall in Sharjah, UAE.
A galaxy of business leaders, innovators and techies will take the centre stage at the 3rd Middle East Innovation and Technology Transfer (MITT) Summit, the region’s biggest specialized event in technology transfer and innovation, to be held at the SRTI Park, Sharjah, on October 13, 2022.
3rd MENA Innovation and Technology Transfer Summit to be held at SRTI Park in Sharjah
The 3rd Middle East Innovation and Technology Transfer (MITT) Summit, the region’s biggest specialized event in technology transfer and innovation, to be held at the SRTI Park, Sharjah. (Supplied)
Leading experts from the region and across the globe will discuss how to best shape the future of innovation while creating sustainable impact, in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, covering topic like Water Technology, Renewable Energy, Environmental Technology, Digitization, Industrial Design 4.0, and Mobility and Smart Cities.
The participants in the one-day summit will include R&D institutions, technology transfer experts, global investors, government and private sector representatives, entrepreneurs and academics and other stakeholders, presenting an immersive experience of knowledge sharing, business showcasing and networking in an intimate setting.
The summit comes at a time when the world is witnessing the fourth industrial revolution characterized by the penetration of emerging technology in a number of fields, including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, and autonomous vehicles.
Hussain Al Mahmoudi, CEO of the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park, said: “The MITT Summit 2022 assumes huge significance as the Middle East has become the world’s fastest growing market in business and technology transfer. As proven globally, the knowledge and technology transfer model has been responsible for rapid advancements in every field. By bringing together global experts and highlighting the role of academic institutions in R&D, the MITT Summit serves as a perfect platform for ramping up technology transfer trends in the region.”
The summit will discuss patterns of technology transfer in the Middle East and North Africa region, existing opportunities as well as challenges, and tips on how to achieve set goals and use knowledge sharing to boost the region’s economic growth and long-term stability.
Technology transfer has been the main driver of global economic growth over the last 40 years. Companies are increasingly relying on open innovation to develop intellectual property (IP) more quickly and economically, to stay ahead of competition. Universities, research organisations, and SMEs play a crucial role in supplying intellectual property, and supporting research that will build the innovations of tomorrow.
Many countries around the world have passed their own national legislations and policies to spur innovation. The UAE issued its own National Innovation Strategy in 2014, which seeks to make the country the region’s top innovation hub by developing the right regulatory framework, infrastructure, and ensuring availability of investment.
In The Arab Weekly, it is a question of connectivity, not oil that will drive the Middle East’s future. It is written byAfshin Molavi
Connectivity, not oil, will drive the Middle East’s future
The above-featured image is A general view of Tanger-Med container port in Ksar Sghir near the coastal city of Tangier, Morocco. (Reuters)
The region’s start-ups attracted nearly $1 billion in the first quarter of this year, a doubling of last year’s tally.
Thursday 14/07/2022
On the very day that US President Joe Biden lands in Saudi Arabia Friday, nearly 200,000 containers will be making their way to ports from Tangier to Dubai, hundreds of thousands of airline passengers will transit through the region’s airports, millions of dollars in remittances will be flowing from the region to the developing world and countless American companies will be selling their wares to a growing Arab middle class.
Oil and gas, once the main draws for the West, will almost be an afterthought. In other words, it will be just another day of business in the Middle East and North Africa.
For too long, the United States’ regional policy has focused almost entirely on the triumvirate of security, geopolitics, and oil. It is time for the US and the broader Western world to widen its vision and see the MENA region for what it is, and not a caricature of what it was in the 1970s.
But while the term itself is dated, the countries that the term encompasses do have much in common, including strategic commercial geography. They are more Middle World than Middle East and the real dividing line for future success will be connectivity to the wider world, not religious sect or geopolitical alliances or form of government.
Consider the region’s air connectivity. Most of the Gulf Arab states and Iran have cities that are a four-hour flight to one-third of the world and an eight-hour flight to two-thirds of the planet.
To capitalise on this enviable air geography, Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and also Istanbul, have created air hubs, with considerable success. In 2014, Dubai International Airport surpassed London Heathrow as the busiest international airport in the world. It is a similar story with supply chain and trade connectivity. Several North African states have enviable Mediterranean coasts and easy air and trade access to Europe. Morocco and Tunisia have become key parts of automotive and aerospace supply chains in Europe and Egypt’s Suez Canal sees some 30 percent of the world’s container trade pass through its waters annually.
The author and journalist Kim Ghattas, in her excellent book, “The Black Wave,” reminds us of how consequential 1979 was in shaping the region. That year witnessed the Iranian revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, events that empowered both Sunni and Shia Islamist radicals for a generation and cowed Saudi rulers into a policy of soft-pedalling and co-optation of its own extremists.
Those days are now over in Saudi Arabia, witness the social transformation of the kingdom in recent years. But if we go back to 1979, there was another less-heralded event that is also worth remembering: the opening of Jebel Ali port in Dubai, today one of the busiest ports in the world. With stacked containers as far as the eye can see, Jebel Ali is both a symbol of globalisation and an example of local leadership in action. The port and associated free zones leveraged a never-depleting resource, Dubai’s geography, to build a major trade and shipping hub.
Saudi Arabia’s investments in the infrastructure of connectivity, airports, rail, seaports, are also supporting regional and global recoveries. A recent World Bank report listed King Abdullah Port in Jeddah as the most efficient container terminal in the world.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is pumping billions into its own aviation sector, aiming to more than triple the number of passengers that fly through its airports by 2030. Before the pandemic, the global travel and tourism industry accounted for one in ten global jobs and more than ten percent of global GDP. Today, the region’s airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Saudia, are leading the global recovery in this sector, too.
More broadly, GCC countries are contributing to economic connectivity through remittances and aid. Remittances far outpace foreign aid and direct investment and are the largest source of foreign currency earnings in low and middle-income countries. Over the past decade, hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed from Gulf Arab states to the developing world, most notably South Asia. Those remittances are a vital part of the development story.
Finally, a rising tech entrepreneurial class has become a top source of economic pride. Biden would do well to step beyond the palaces and meet people like Fadi Ghandour, the Jordanian business leader who founded the FedEx of the region, Aramex and who today serves as an angel investor for the women and men creating and building new start-ups from Amman to Abu Dhabi. The region’s start-ups attracted nearly $1 billion in the first quarter of this year, a doubling of last year’s tally.
While this rising connectivity offers hope, there remain spectacular failures.
Exhibit A is Lebanon, a country of talented people held hostage by craven politicians, currently experiencing one of the worst economic meltdowns of the modern era. It is a similar story in Iran. The region’s non-oil states, meanwhile, are facing stubbornly high unemployment, rising energy prices, supply chain disruptions and a global slowdown.
But these challenges should not obscure a broader opportunity. The MENA region is blessed with a resource that never depletes: strategic geography. The countries and cities that leverage their geographies will be well-suited to compete into the 21st century. Those that fail will remain regional laggards, part of the old “Middle East,” rather than the emerging Middle World. That is the story Biden should be watching and supporting.
Afshin Molavi is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and editor and founder of the Emerging World newsletter.
The Middle East is looking to advanced manufacturing as an opportunity for economic diversification from the rentier economies they have known to date. It is a matter of not only finding that goldfinch but going for strategic options that should bring that into the open.
Localising technology and digital manufacturing are major opportunities for economic growth and greater supply chain resilience
Economic diversification is imperative for the Middle East. The region’s overdependence on petrochemicals in manufacturing is a widely acknowledged risk that weakens resilience and could impede future economic growth. The industry contributes 24% of GDP in Saudi Arabia and 16% in the UAE in terms of oil rents, compared with less than 1% in the U.S. and China.
Middle East governments need to decide which tech segments within the vast technology universe—and even which product families within segments—they want to pursue with large-scale projects, and provide ample support to attract global tech companies as occupants.
Ambitious programmes
In recent years, some Middle East countries, chiefly in the GCC, have launched ambitious programmes to diversify and expand their manufacturing. These countries seek to meet national and regional demand, and position themselves as export platforms. Typically, these projects are part of a state-led master economic development plan.
Countries are prioritising technology for localisation because of its growth potential and strategic importance. At present, high-tech manufacturing is concentrated in a handful of countries (none in the Middle East), whose companies function as providers to the world.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the region’s susceptibility to supply chain disruptions and tested its resilience, making it sometimes difficult or impossible for companies to secure the technology on which they depend.
Manufacturing opportunity
In response, governments and regional authorities are accelerating their localisation initiatives, as are large, global tech manufacturers with similar interests.
Three categories of manufactured tech products, with a combined Middle East market size of roughly $125bn, are well-suited to Middle East localisation opportunities. These are:
Advanced materials such as nanomaterials, smart materials, and bioplastics;
Advanced components such as electronic semiconductor components, and battery components; and
Advanced finished products such as general-purpose robots, space systems, IoT [Internet of Things] devices, and 3D printers.
Some of these products are disruptive and innovative; others are mainstream but satisfy the pressing needs of regional companies in numerous sectors.
Fierce competition
Competition among countries will be fierce as they stake claims on lucrative tech segments, gain first-mover advantage, and attract tenants. Already in the Middle East, Neom Tech & Digital Company, founded in 2021 as the first subsidiary to be established out of Saudi Arabia’s $500bn Neom city project, is building advanced digital infrastructure. Likewise, the industrialisation and innovation strategy of the UAE, led by projects by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, is focused on the localisation of high-tech products.
In this environment, Middle East governments must target first those localisation opportunities that have confirmed market potential and grant them the right to win. Experience elsewhere indicates that governments should select products that:
Have captive and sizeable national and regional demand;
Are in markets that are not yet highly concentrated;
Can be manufactured cost competitively in global terms; and
That could create potential network effects for additional manufacturing localisation opportunities.
Ecosystem facilitation
Next, after identifying the right opportunity, Middle East governments must put in place a supportive ecosystem. Financial incentives may include direct subsidies to lower upfront capital expenditure requirements, and indirect subsidies such as tax breaks to reduce long-term operating expenditures. Governments will also need to ensure seamless integration into global supply chains, enabled by reliable and modern physical infrastructure for road, sea, and air transport, and by digital networking capacity.
Likewise, regulatory and policy reforms targeted at the technology sector can help lure potential tenants to the region. These could include support for technology adoption, ensuring data security, and protecting intellectual property. Similarly, pure water, enabled by investments in desalination plants if needed, and high-quality and stable electricity, are prerequisites for a successful ecosystem.
Choice of tenants
Finally, to bolster their chances of success, governments should choose tenants carefully, giving priority to those that hold leadership positions in their industries and that can attract other companies into their operating sphere by virtue of their prominence. Likewise, companies that invest significantly in research and development (R&D) warrant special consideration. These companies are more apt to retain their leadership position and remain viable over the long term, given the pace of change in the tech industry. Companies that can demonstrate a strong financial position and have prior experience with greenfield localisation projects are more apt to possess the capabilities and resources to succeed.
As competition intensifies to establish tech manufacturing and satisfy captive and global demand, Middle East governments must move fast. They need to select those areas – materials, components, or products – where they have a right to win, and create the ecosystems to enable companies to thrive.
This MEED published article was produced byAlessandro BorgognaandChady Smayra, partners, andMaha Raad, principal from Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.
The Arabian Business tells us a story about the ongoing trends in high-tech businesses, technological innovation and the use of social media in the Emirate, wondered if Dubai can be the next Silicon Valley technology hub?
The emirate provides those in the Web 3 space with the ‘perfect balance of work and fun,’ making it attractive for talent, said the 26-year-old co-founder of interactive short video platform Vurse
Originally intending to stay in Dubai for only 12 days, Shadman Sakib ended up “falling in love” with the city and choosing it to launch his interactive short video platform Vurse from, set for the second half of 2022.
Vurse will be one of the first deep tech companies to come out of the Middle East and 26-year-old Sakib said Dubai “has so much potential and can become the next Silicon Valley.”
“We just have to fine-tune people’s mentality on a deep tech perspective and once that happens, the sky is the limit. For us people in the Web 3.0 space, we really want a nice balance between fun and work and Dubai really has the capability to provide both,” said Sakib.
“We are in the process of hiring our team members from across the world and it is actually much easier for us to attract them being based here in Dubai versus other cities because of the fine balance between work and life, plus the entertainment aspect. This is why we chose Dubai and we feel like it is going to be our long-term home,” he continued.
Shadman Sakib, Tech Entrepreneur
Sakib believes Vurse’s growth will translate into the growth of Dubai in the deep tech and Web 3.0 space, giving the example of how the presence of the big tech companies in San Francisco led to the development of the American state’s tech reputation.
“Dubai is one of the smartest cities in the world. You go to the airport and immigration is done in minutes, not many cities in the world can compete with that kind of technology,” explained Sakib.
“It is therefore high time we have a homegrown company that goes beyond the traditional businesses we have in this city. Traditional companies can only grow so far versus the companies in deep tech or Web 3 space – especially the ones with proper resources – where the sky is the limit; you have the whole world to play with,” he continued.
How Sakib got into tech and conceived of Vurse
Sakib grew up in Bangladesh and says he was “pretty much of an underdog,” for most of his life, recounting how he dropped out of his undergraduate studies in the US before moving to the UK where he again pursued his studies while working as a waiter on the side.
Lying on his couch one day and playing with his phone Sakib wondered why he was using someone else’s product instead of developing a product that people could use.
“I was 20 years old at the time and while my peers were focused on enjoying life, I was consumed with finding a purpose for mine,” he recalled.
“My philosophy was all about being determined that I would have a strong footfall by the time my friends finish university so that they would come to me and ask for a job,” added Sakib.
Sakib believes Vurse’s growth will translate into the growth of Dubai in the deep tech and Web 3.0 space
Having no background in technology, Sakib talked to a few of his friends and contacts in the app design space but was frustrated with the ideas they came up with as they were a copy of what already existed.
“I wanted to look at how I can wow the customer or my user not recreate the same thing – I wanted to build something different,” explained Sakib. As such, he taught himself coding before meeting the co-founder of Vurse who is a “coding genius.”
It is within this context that the idea of Vurse came about to take the social media experience into the Web 3 space and give content creators ownership over their content rather than having a platform control that.
“Our target is to make the content creators bigger because once they are a big brand themselves, a similar effect will happen to the company itself,” explained Sakib.
“My co-founder and I have been wanting to work on a consumer-facing product for some time now because that is where we think the main fun is. We want to understand the newer generations that are coming up and their culture. We also want to understand the music industry very well,” he continued.
As such, Sakib has delegated his other businesses to fully focus on Vurse, a business he self-funded. And while he declined disclosing much information about Vurse itself, he said it is built on three verticals: a content creator marketplace where people will be able to trade NFTs, a short video platform and the AI verse, a self-created metaverse within the platform.
“The metaverse will stay but the way we see and think of it will change. Currently, you have to have a specialised device to access the metaverse which restricts access somehow,” said Sakib.
“Once the technology catches up to the extent that it is easily accessible to anyone anywhere, then the real game begins,” he continued.
Earth has been used as a building material for at least the last 12,000 years. Ethnographic research into earth being used as an element of Aboriginal architecture in Australia suggests its use probably goes back much further.
Traditional construction methods were no match for the earthquake that rocked Morocco on Friday night, an engineering expert says, and the area will continue to see such devastation unless updated building techniques are adopted.
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