U.A.E.

The United Martian Emirates

Space-colonization dreams from the Middle East

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Once it became clear that "bizarre building plan from the United Arab Emirates" was basically a regional subgenre of science fiction, something like this was probably inevitable:

NASA

Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates' grabbed the world's attention when Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced a plan to establish a colony on Mars by 2117. Officials have been relatively mum about the details of the "Mars 2117 Project"—but [Tuesday] a person helping to lead the endeavor discussed how young Arab people will lead the mission….

According to early mockups, the UAE colony will involve some pretty advanced infrastructure, though more formalized models have not yet been made public.

If there's one thing the UAE is great at producing, it's "early mockups" of cool-looking structures. The structures themselves frequently fail to get built, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the images:

[Hat tip: Bryan Alexander.]