UAE to launch its first lunar rover in November

September 19, 2022

The UAE is expected to launch the Rashid rover in November this year aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket.

Key facts

The United Arab Emirates will launch its first lunar rover named Rashid from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in November 2022.
The rover would reach the Lunar surface aboard the Hakuto-R lander of Japan’s ispace sometime in March next year.
If this lunar mission is successful, the UAE and Japan will rank among the US, Russia and China as being the only countries to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
Its destination the Lacus Somniorum – the Lake of Dreams – situated close to the lunar equator.
The Rashid rover will study the lunar surface, mobility on the surface of the moon and how different surfaces interact with the particles on the moon.
The rover weighs 10 kg. It would carry two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera, a thermal imagery camera, a probe and other devices.
The rover is named after Dubai’s former ruler Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who is credited for the transformation of Dubai from a small cluster of settlements near the Dubai Creek to a modern port city and commercial hub.
It was built at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.
Earlier, the UAE launched the Hope Mission to Mars – the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
It was also developed by Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.
The Arab country is currently planning to achieve the ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.

About HAKUTO-R lander

The HAKUTO-R lander was built by the Japanese company ispace. The Rashid rover would be the first Moon trip for HAKUTO-R, which has been under development for more than 10 years.

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