UAE Launches 1st Arab-Built Lunar Rover

On Sunday, UAE successfully launched the Rashid Rover which is the first Arab-built lunar rover in history.

The Space X Falcon 9 carried the lunar that was built by Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, and was delivered by the HAKUTO-R lander, engineered by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace.

The mission is taking a low-energy route to the moon and it will arrive in April 2023. The rover will spend one lunar day on the surface of the moon to conduct major operations. 

Moreover, it will spend a second lunar day to make secondary operations. It will also check whether the spacecraft will survive the moon’s environment, or not.

Among the operations of the rover is analyzing the plasma on the lunar surface and doing some experiments to examine the lunar dust.

The dust of the moon is sharp and it causes several problems to the equipment in case it sticks to it.

The Rashid Rover carried the name of the late Sheikh Rashid Al Saeed, the former ruler of Dubai.

The rover will depend on solar power and it was attached with four cameras, including a microscopic and thermal one.