United Arab Emirates to launch first lunar rover in November

The United Arab Emirates will launch its first lunar rover in November, the mission supervisor mentioned Monday.

Hamad Al Marzooqi advised The National, a state-linked newspaper, that the “Rashid” rover, named for Dubai’s ruling household, could be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida someday between Nov. 9 and Nov. 15. The precise date can be introduced subsequent month, he mentioned.

The rover is to be launched aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket and deposited on the moon by a Japanese ispace lander someday in March.

“We’ve finished with the testing of the rover and we are happy with the results,” Al Marzooqi was quoted as saying. “The rover has been integrated with the lander and it is ready for launch.”

The lunar mission is a part of the UAE’s broader technique to develop into a significant participant within the discipline of space exploration. If the moon mission succeeds, the UAE and Japan would be part of the ranks of solely the U.S., Russia and China as nations which have put a spacecraft on the lunar floor.

Already, an Emirati satellite is orbiting Mars to review the crimson planet’s environment. The UAE partnered with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to launch that probe, which swung into Mars’ orbit in February 2021.

The Rashid rover is predicted to review the lunar surface, mobility on the moon’s floor and the way totally different surfaces work together with lunar particles. The 10-kilogram (22-pound) rover will carry two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic digital camera, a thermal imagery digital camera, a probe and different units.

The UAE has plans to develop the Middle East’s most superior business satellite to provide high-resolution satellite imagery. It has additionally set the formidable purpose of constructing a human colony on Mars by 2117.

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