UAE launches first Arab-built moon rover

• The HAKUTO-R lander will deploy Dubai’s Rashid Rover.
• The rover will study lunar plasma and dust.
• It’s named after Dubai’s former ruler, Sheikh Rashid Al Saeed.

The first lunar spacecraft ever developed by an Arab nation was launched into space on December 11 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The HAKUTO-R lander, designed by the Japanese lunar exploration company ispace, will deploy the Rashid Rover, which was constructed by Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

If the landing is successful, HAKUTO-R will also mark history as the first commercial spacecraft to perform a safe moon landing.

The mission will reach the moon in about April 2023 by travelling there on a low-energy trajectory. Once there, the rover will conduct its primary operations on the surface for one lunar day, which is similar to 14.75 days on Earth.

Before decommissioning, the rover will spend the second lunar day doing secondary activities to see if it can withstand the hostile nighttime environment on the moon.

The rover, which is slated to land in the Atlas crater on the moon’s northeast, has been built to resist lunar night, when temperatures can drop as low as -183°C (-297.4°F).

The Rashid Rover will investigate the plasma on the lunar surface and carry out tests to learn more about lunar dust.

It is named after the late Sheikh Rashid Al Saeed, the former ruler of Dubai. Astronauts may experience operational issues as a result of spacesuits and equipment being adhered to and corroded by razor-sharp lunar dust particles.

The rover will include four cameras, including tiny and thermal ones, and run exclusively on solar power.

The launch, which follows NASA‘s Artemis I lunar mission, is the first phase of the UAE’s comprehensive moon exploration program.

The Gulf nation intends to launch a second rover as early as 2025 and has further plans to send orbiters, rovers, and other spacecraft to the moon.

At the MBRSC, work on the 10 kilograms, four-wheel Rashid Rover started in 2017. It was created by a team of only Emiratis.

According to the project manager of the Emirates Lunar Mission at the MBRSC, Hamad Al Marzooqi, “the team did a tremendous job in launching the mission and developing it.”

A Mars colony is another ambitious goal of the MBRSC that will be supported by the expedition. By 2117, it plans to establish the first human community on Mars.

Al Marzooqi envisions the lunar surface expedition as a gateway to Mars.

“We are starting small,” he says, “but we hope that this small step will be eventually the starting point to reach our targets.”

Also Read

Orion splashdown concludes historic lunar expedition

Sunday is Orion's scheduled ocean splashdown. From the moon to Earth, the...