The Emirates Lunar Mission ( ar, مشروع الإمارات لاستكشاف القمر) is the first mission to the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
from the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...
.
The mission by
Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC; ar, مركز محمد بن راشد للفضاء, markaz Muḥammad bin Rāshid lil-faḍāʾ), is a Dubai government organisation working on the UAE space programme, which includes various space s ...
(MBRSC) is sending a
lunar rover
A lunar rover or Moon rover is a 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, 16, and 17. Other rov ...
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 two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth version of Falcon 9 Full Thr ...
rocket,
and the rover will land in
Atlas crater.
''Rashid'' will be equipped with two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera to capture small details, and a thermal imaging camera. The rover will also carry a
Langmuir probe, designed to study the Moon's plasma and will attempt to explain why Moon dust is so sticky.
The rover will 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.Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum
Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum ( ar, ٱلـشَّـيْـخ رَاشِـد بِـن سَـعِـيْـد آل مَـكْـتُـوْم, Ash-Shaykh Rāshid bin Sa`īd Āl Maktūm; 11 June 1912 – 7 October 1990) was the vice president ...
, who was responsible for the transformation of Dubai from a small cluster of settlements near the Dubai Creek
Dubai Creek ( ar, خور دبي, Khūr Dubay) has been described as a natural saltwater creek, tidal inlet, and watercourse or waterway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It extends about inwards and forms a natural port that has traditional ...
to a modern port city and commercial hub. The rover will be built in MBRSC in Dubai by Emiratis
The Emiratis ( ar, الإماراتيون) are the native Arab citizen population of the United Arab Emirates. Their largest concentration is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where there are about approximately 1.5 million Emiratis.
Formerl ...
, making it the first Arab country to send a mission to the Moon.
HAKUTO-R lander
As the United Arab Emirates does not plan to build its own lander, it has contracted with the Japanese company ispace for a lunar landing. The Emirates Lunar Mission will be the first Moon trip for Hakuto-R, which ispace has been 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 XPRIZE (GLXP), sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0,
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 ...
. 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
Space probes launched in 2022