Pupils from the International Academic School developed the winning droid for the challenge.

Breaking into the Martian orbit in its maiden attempt with the Hope probe has won accolades for UAE across the globe, and established it as a serious contender in the modern space race, alongside powers like US and China, as well as firms like SpaceX. But along with this, the developments have also encouraged young talent in the country and their peers across the Middle East to aim for the stars by creating concepts for satellites, studying the cosmos, and designing futuristic cities to be set up on Mars.

Over the past few months after Hope probe's feats, students in the Emirates have created rockets which were on display at a contest in the US, and institutions have opened up opportunities via virtual reality as well as educational satellites, for students to test their ideas in realistic settings. The country which is set to send out a robotic rover called Rashid to the moon by next year, before it pushes ahead towards a mission in an asteroid belt, has also rolled out a contest for students where they get to create their own droids for space research.

Won by the International Academic School in Dubai, the contest encouraged fresh minds to create, code and design smart machines, with a vision for collecting samples and information, to measure the scope of sustainability on Mars. The red planet has been the centre of attention for UAE's voyage into space, since the country hopes to build a city on the globe by the next century, for which it has already started building a prototype in the Emirati desert.

Enthusiasm for marching out in the cosmos is reflected from the fact that 160 teams participated in the Planet X competition.

Speaking of young talent, the second pair of Emirati cosmonauts has reached NASA for further training before they are on their way to space. At the same time their predecessors have completed working on their skills to operate robotic arms at the international space station.