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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has found another partner to help it further its lunar exploration ambitions.
The UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) announced today (16 September) that it has partnered with China National Space Administration (CNSA) working together on future lunar work.
The two agencies will “collaborate on future lunar missions, including landing the MBRSC rover on a CNSA lander”, MBRSC via twitter today (opens in new tab). The agreement marks “the first joint space project between the UAE and China,” the agency said in another tweet (opens in new tab).
Moon Timeline: Human exploration of the moon
MBRSC is already working with two private sector partners on its Emirates Moon Mission, plans to send a small Rashid rover to the moon later this year.Robotic tasks will be in a SpaceX A Falcon 9 rocket and 22 lb (10 kg) Rashid will land on board Baidou Ra lander built by Tokyo-based company ispace.
Utilizing China in future lunar work also makes sense, given China’s impressive track record of lunar exploration. Over the past decade, China has launched three missions to the surface of the globe, all with success.
Chang’e-3 placed a lander-rover duo on the moon’s near side in December 2013, and Chang’e 4 In January 2019, a similar pair touched down on the far side of the moon—the first-ever soft landing on that little-known part of the moon. Both missions are still going strong. And, in late 2020, Chang’e 5 The mission brought lunar mud and rocks to Earth, completing the first lunar sample return since the mid-1970s.
The UAE’s lunar landing program and the newly announced deal with China are part of the UAE’s joint push to become more of a player in space.
For example, the country sent its first astronaut, haza al mansouri, flies to the International Space Station in the fall of 2019. Another Emirati astronaut, Sultan ArneadiNext year will spend six months at the orbiting laboratory as a member of SpaceX’s Crew-6 mission for NASA.
In 2020, the UAE launched UAE mission to Mars, which sent an orbiter called Hope to the Red Planet. Hope arrived safely in February 2021 and continues to study the Martian atmosphere and climate from its orbital position today.The country is developing Asteroid Belt Missionwhich aims to launch in the late 2020s.
Mike Wall is “there (opens in new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or open Facebook (opens in new tab).
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