Rashid rover: UAE launches first Arab-made moon rover

CNN
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 11, sending the first-ever Arab-made lunar spacecraft into space.

The Rashid rover was built at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and delivered by the HAKUTO-R lander designed by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace. If the landing is successful, HAKUTO-R will also become the first commercial spacecraft ever to perform a controlled landing on the Moon.

The mission takes a low-energy route to the moon and is expected to arrive around April 2023. Once there, the rover will spend one lunar day (equivalent to 14.75 days on Earth) on the lunar surface for its primary operations. It will conduct a secondary operation on the second lunar day to check whether the rover can survive the lunar harsh nighttime environment before decommissioning.

Planned to land in Atlas Crater on the northeastern part of the moon, the rover is designed to withstand moonlit nights, when temperatures can drop as low as -183°C or -297.4°F.

The Rashid rover, named after the late Sheikh Rashid Al Saeed, the former ruler of Dubai, will analyze plasma on the lunar surface and conduct experiments to learn more about lunar dust. Sharp particles of lunar dust can stick to and corrode spacesuits and equipment, causing operational problems for astronauts.

The rover will be powered entirely by solar energy and will be equipped with four cameras, including a microscope and a thermal imaging camera.

The launch, which comes shortly after NASA’s Artemis I lunar mission, marks the first step in the UAE’s ambitious lunar exploration programme. The Gulf state plans to send several vehicles to the moon, including a rover and an orbiter, with a second rover planned for as soon as 2025.

In 2017, MBRSC started building the 10kg four-wheeled Rashid Rover. It was designed entirely by the UAE team. “The team did a great job in launching the mission and designing the mission,” Hamad Al Marzooqi, MBRSC’s project manager for the UAE lunar mission, told CNN.

MBRSC is also using the mission to advance ambitious Mars colony plans. It hopes to establish the first human settlements on the Red Planet by 2117. Al Marzooqi hopes the lunar surface mission will be a stepping stone to Mars.

“We’re starting small,” he said, “but we hope that this small step will ultimately be the starting point to achieve our goals.”