The Emirates Lunar Mission () is the first mission to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

from the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The mission by

Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC, ) is a Government of Dubai, Dubai Government organization working on the UAE space program, which includes various Satellite, space satellites projects, such as the Emirates Mars Mission, the Emirates ...

(MBRSC) sent a

lunar rover A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration Rover (space exploration), vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, ...

named ''Rashid'' to the Moon aboard ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander. It was launched on 11 December 2022 on a

Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon 9 Block 5 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, human-rating certification, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. I ...

rocket, and the rover attempted to land in Atlas crater. On 25 April 2023, seconds before an attempted landing, communication with the Hakuto-R lander was lost. The ispace team confirmed that the spacecraft had crashed into the Moon and was thus destroyed. Another rover named ''Rashid 2'' was announced in 26 April 2023.

Rover specifications

''Rashid'' was equipped with two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera to capture small details, and a thermal imaging camera. The rover also carried a Langmuir probe, designed to study the Moon's plasma and attempt to explain why Moon dust is so sticky. The rover was designed to study the lunar surface, mobility on the Moon’s surface and how different surfaces interact with lunar particles.

Overview

The mission's initial timeline was to send the rover by 2024. On 14 April 2021, MBRSC announced that the schedule had been moved up to send the rover to the Moon by 2022, rather than 2024. The rover is named ''Rashid'' in honor of Dubai's late ruler Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who was responsible for the transformation of Dubai from a small cluster of settlements near the Dubai Creek to a modern port city and commercial hub. The rover was built in MBRSC in Dubai by

Emiratis The Emiratis (; ) are the Citizenship, citizen population of the United Arab Emirates. Within the UAE itself, their number is approximately 1.15 million. Formerly known as the Trucial States, the UAE is made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, making it the first Arab country to send a mission to the Moon.

HAKUTO-R lander

As the United Arab Emirates did not plan to build its own lander, it contracted with the Japanese company ispace for a lunar landing. The Emirates Lunar Mission was the first Moon trip for Hakuto-R, which ispace was developing for more than a decade. The company, which was established in 2010, managed Team Hakuto, one of the five finalists in the

Google Lunar X Prize The Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) was a 2007–2018 inducement prize space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a lunar rover on t ...

. The private race to the Moon ended in 2018 without a winner.

References

{{2022 in space Space probes launched in 2022 2022 in the United Arab Emirates Space program of the United Arab Emirates Missions to the Moon Lunar rovers 2023 on the Moon