Emirati Pilot Shareef Al Romaithi Selected for NASA Mars Simulation

Dubai’s Shareef Al Romaithi was the eighth person to ever receive a doctorate in aviation, as well as the world’s youngest. Now, the Dubai pilot is helping push the boundaries of space exploration: Al Romaithi has been selected to join the first crew of NASA’S Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) Campaign 7 Mission 2, an exercise that could just enable humanity’s next interstellar milestone: setting foot on Mars.

HERA is a 45-day project designed to test systems and prepare crew members for deep space missions. For the duration of the exercise, crew members will be confined to a 60.4 square metre habitat that mimics the conditions astronauts will face in space. Although this mission takes place in Houston, Texas, crew members will deal with the challenges they would face on a deep-space mission, including communication outages, isolation, confinement and more.

Before becoming the first person from the UAE to join a HERA campaign, Romaithi racked up 16 years of experience in the airline industry and has logged more than 9,000 flight hours on Airbus and Boeing aircrafts. His doctorate specialises in safety systems and human factors. His participation in this mission comes through a partnership between NASA and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC).