UAE Launching The New Arab-built Moon Rover: The Rashid Rover, made by MBRSC in the UAE, is produced by the HAKUTO-R lander and is planned by the Japanese lunar exploration company. HAKUTO-R will become the first commercial spacecraft to make a controlled landing on the moon.
The spacecraft’s mission is to take a low-energy way to the moon, and its arrival is due around April 2023. When it reaches there, the Rover will spend one lunar day on the surface (equal to 14.75 days on the earth), performing its primary functions. The second day on the lunar surface will be completed by performing secondary operations, like checking whether the Rover will persist in the moon’s harsh nighttime environment before decommissioning.
The Rashid Rover is named after the late Sheikh Rashid Al Saeed, who was a former ruler of Dubai. The spacecraft will examine the plasma on the surface of the moon and will also execute more experiments to understand the lunar dust. The lunar dust particles are razor-sharp and stick and destroy the spacesuits and equipment, causing functional problems for the astronauts.
The Rover is designed entirely solar-powered, equipped with four cameras, containing a microscope and a thermal one.
The launch of Rover comes momentarily after the launch of NASA’s Artemis l lunar mission and strives to mark the first initiative in the UAE’s ambitious moon exploration program. The Gulf also plans to send many other vehicles to the moon, including rivers and orbiters, with the second Rover, which is tentatively scheduled will be launched in 2025.
The construction of Rover began in 2017 at the MBRSC. Its weight is 10kg, and an Emirati team designs a four-wheeler rover.
Hamad Al Marzooqi, a project manager in the Emirates Lunar Mission at the MBRSC, conveyed to CNN, ” The team did an incredible job initiating the mission and designing it.
The MBRSC also utilises this mission to fuel the ambitious and much-awaited plans for a Mars colony. It hopes to create the first human arrangement on the Red Planet by 2117.
Al Marzooqi has a positive approach towards the mission and hopes that the lunar surface mission will become a stepping stone for going to Mars.
He added, “We are starting small, but we hope this small step will eventually be the starting point for reaching our targets.”
Conclusion
The Rashid Rover spacecraft, designed and made by an Emirati team, will be the first lunar Rover to reach the moon. Though it is designed to resist the lunar night when the temperatures can reach below -183°C or -297.4°F, it has also planned to pave the way towards future endeavours.
