ABSTRACT
The increase in the use of social media as a 21st century communication tool is in parallel increasing the threat to national security globally. This study explores the perception of United Arab Emirate community members (specifically youth) on the influence of social media as a threat;the wide use of SM platforms for Emirate of Sharjah (Dibba Al-Hisn, Khor Fakkan, Kalba) were analyzed utilizing a descriptive-analytical method. The results of the study on the effects and consequences of social media on national security in the UAE, rates social media as having the highest level of influence on political implications followed in decreasing order of influence by, economic, cultural and societal, ethical and religious dimensions, and the least potential influence being on perceived national security implications. Further, the results of a one-way variance analysis indicate the potential for the perceived level of national security experienced by youth community members in the UAE to be predicted through social media. A unique feature of this study is the analysis of the influence of the five dimensions of national security on each other and national security collectively from an Arab youth perspective. Further, the study design is replicable and offers, (a) an opportunity for wider utilization as an avenue for contributing to understanding the impact of social media on the perception of a country’s national security, and (b) a fundamental baseline for future research.
ABSTRACT
The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) is the United Arab Emirates (UAE) first mission to Mars and is the first Arab mission to another planet. It launched an unmanned observatory called "Hope" into an elliptical orbit around Mars on July 20, 2020 carrying three scientific instruments to study the Martian atmosphere in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths. EMM will be the first mission to provide the first truly global picture of the Martian atmosphere, revealing important information about how atmospheric processes drive diurnal variations for a period of one Martian year. This will provide scientists with valuable understanding of the changes to the Martian atmosphere today through the achievement of three scientific objectives: A. Characterize the state of the Martian lower atmosphere on global scales and its geographic, diurnal and seasonal variability. B. Correlate rates of thermal and photochemical atmospheric escape with conditions in the collisional Martian atmosphere. C. Characterize the spatial structure and variability of key constituents in the Martian exosphere. The mission is led by Emiratis from Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and is expanding the nation s human capital through knowledge transfer programs set with international partners from the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), Arizona State University (ASU) School of Earth and Space Exploration, and University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL). The paper highlights the driving motivation behind the mission, its scientific objectives and instruments, the unforeseen challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the status and accomplishments of the mission since its Mars Orbit insertion on Feb 9, 2021. © 2021 International Astronautical Federation, IAF. All rights reserved.