I don't know the details of this project—and the UAE's affinity with grand projects certainly warrants a grain of salt—but I've often thought these baby steps c

I don't know the details of this project—and the UAE's affinity with grand projects certainly warrants a grain of salt—but I've often thought these baby steps could be useful for space exploration. Sure, Mars, the Moon, etc. are not like anything found on earth. But at the same time getting good at surviving in the least hospitable places on Earth could certainly yield some insight when living in even lesser hospitable places. And like so many other space research projects, there might even be useful outcomes for everyday life on earth. Wishing them all the best, and even if they "fail", I hope valuable insight is learned from this.