HEX20 details bus and software role in UAE asteroid probe

HEX20 detailed its spacecraft-bus and software contribution to the United Arab Emirates asteroid probe in an October 13 announcement published by communications agency MD Niche. The company identified an engineering presence at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and operations in Masdar City in the UAE.

The disclosure describes the bus as the platform supporting the probe’s payload and operations, alongside software developed for the mission. It dates HEX20’s selection by the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) and the UAE Space Agency to November 2024. The announcement therefore supplies details of the company’s work rather than evidence of a newly awarded contract.

TII had already announced the probe’s unveiling on October 1. Its account identifies HEX20 as a collaborator on the probe, which it says was designed, built and tested in Abu Dhabi. The October 13 company account adds the supplier’s bus and software scope; it does not establish a new unveiling date.

The probe is a deployable payload of the MBR Explorer spacecraft for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt. TII plans for it to separate near asteroid 269 Justitia and reach the surface autonomously. Its onboard software is intended to choose when to take images and which images to retain, without commands from Earth after launch.

The two announcements do not resolve the detailed allocation of subsystem responsibility. HEX20’s statement credits the company with an onboard computer and power systems; TII’s statement credits its own team with the digital processing unit for processing, image selection and power management. Neither record explains how those descriptions fit together.

TII’s stated next step is transport to Colorado for integration with MBR Explorer. Its October 1 release targets launch from Japan in March 2028 and deployment at Justitia in early 2036; those remain mission plans rather than completed flight milestones.