The Rashid Rover will soar up to the lunar surface on November 30th at 12.39 pm (UAE time)
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) announced the new launch date for United Arab Emirate’s first lunar mission. The Rashid Rover will soar up to the lunar surface on November 30th at 12.39 pm (UAE time), according to the official statement released by The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center on Thursday. The operation, which was scheduled to take off on November 28, was delayed due to launch restrictions caused by unfavorable weather conditions.
The Rashid Rover will be delivered by ‘ispace’, the Japanese lunar exploration company through its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, and the company is also the first to carry out a commercial cargo mission to the Moon. The space center of UAE in its official tweet has also added that the current date is subject to change depending on the weather conditions or any other difficulties “This date is subject to change depending on the weather status or other conditions. The rover will be taking off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States.
The MBRSC informs that the launch vehicle will start moving to the launch pad Space Launch complex 40 in Florida soon. The spacecraft will take a low-energy path to the moon rather than a direct approach. The rover will land precisely five months after the launch, by April 2023.
The new launch date of the first Emirati mission to the surface of the Moon is set on 30 November at 12:39 pm (UAE time) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, United States. This date is subject to change depending on the weather status or other conditions.
#UAEtotheMoon pic.twitter.com/wjf60TmpLQ— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) November 24, 2022
The carrier of UAE’s space dreams
The Rashid rover, named after the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the former ruler of Dubai, is a 10kg robotic explorer that is preparing for its launch on November 30th, 2022. The rover is constructed to overcome the challenges of the lunar terrain and the fluctuating conditions of the moon. The central landing site of the Rashid rover is the Atlas crater on the Southeastern outer edge of Mare Frigoris.
The site is located on the Moon’s far north side and has been unexplored to date. The Rashid rover will explore the thermal properties of the surface structure, lunar geology, and lunar photoelectron sheath. The materials attached to the rover’s wheels will help in measuring their power and flaw against the lunar particles helping in the manufacture of suits and other materials required for space exploration. The rover will also explore the feature of dust movement, lunar soil, and surface plasma conditions.
The landing site of the rover was chosen along with multiple possibilities, depending on the variable that may arise during the transit and also because the site meets the technical requirements of the lander technology demonstration mission. The site also meets the scientific exploration goals for the Emirates lunar Mission. The M1 lunar lander was delivered to the US last month and will carry multiple government and commercial payloads which also include two rovers to the surface of the moon.
The mission will take off the country’s dream of exploring space and the moon, advancing Emirati space engineering, and enabling the United Arab Emirates to be a part of the world’s space exploration. A fruitful mission would make the UAE the fourth country worldwide to land on the Moon.
The Rashid rover mission is the first among the many goals of UAE space exploration. The country earlier had a successful Hope probe to Mars to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere in the year 2021.