UAE: Challenges of Rashid rover’s moon landing explained

DUBAI: As the UAE attempts the historic feat of becoming the first Arab country to land on the moon tonight, the Mohammed bin Rashid Center (MBRSC), the agency behind the Emirates Moon Landing Program (ELM), explains the challenges ahead during the landing attempt The Rashid rover made in the UAE.

Challenges include difficult landings caused by lander deviations from orbit, communication outages, environmental changes or lander malfunctions, and surface threats such as craters and boulders.

Moon missions only have a 50 percent success rate. Only the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China have successfully attempted soft moon landings. Both India and Israel have performed hard landings on the moon, resulting in crashes of their landers.

According to ispace, the Japanese lunar exploration company that built the lander, the primary landing site will be the Atlas crater in the northeastern quadrant of the moon. Also known as the Sea of ​​Cold, Mare Frigoris is located in the far northern part of the Moon.

“The site meets the technical specifications of the lander technology demonstration mission, the science exploration goals of the @MBRSpaceCentre mission, and the mission requirements of our other customers,” ispace said in a tweet today.

“The selection of the landing site was done in collaboration with MBRSC and @CrpgNancy,” it added, referring to the Center de Recherches Petrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG), the French research laboratory for Earth and planetary sciences.

The MBRSC had earlier stated that the landing site was selected in conjunction with a variety of contingencies that may be used depending on variables that occur during transportation.

Meanwhile, a Japanese lander sent back stunning images of the moon yesterday.

“We are pleased to share a new photo of the Moon taken by the lander’s onboard camera at an altitude of approximately 100 kilometers above the lunar surface,” ispace said in a tweet late Monday.

“We received another incredible photo from the camera on the Mission 1 lander! Seen here is the lunar surface rise during a solar eclipse, taken by the lander’s camera mounted on the lunar surface at an altitude of about 100 kilometers,” ispace said in a second tweet later in the day.