United Arab Emirates expands space programme with Moon mission

A waxing gibbous moon rises behind the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, ahead of the 'Super Pink Moon', in Dubai

Credit: Reuters 

The United Arab Emirates has unveiled plans for the Arab world’s first mission to the moon with an unmanned rover that will study the lunar surface in 2024. 

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and vice president of the UAE, said the Mars mission would focus on parts of the moon not yet explored by “human missions.”

The 22-pound rover, named after the Sheikh, will examine how different surfaces interact with lunar particles, according to the Associated Press. 

The “Rashid” rover has been equipped with two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera, a thermal imagery camera and a probe, UAE officials said. 

The UAE has already dispatched a probe to Mars and sent one of its astronauts to the International Space Station, as the wealthy Gulf state strives to become one of the key powers in the Middle East. 

If successful in 2024, the UAE would become the fourth nation on Earth to land a spacecraft on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union and China. 

India tried and failed to land a spacecraft last year. Israel as well saw its own small spacecraft crash into the lunar surface last year before touchdown, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar landing.

The Amal (Hope) mission is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since the country’s formation. 

In September that year, Amal will start transmitting Martian atmospheric data, which will be made available to the international scientific community, officials say.

Speaking to the Telegraph ahead of the Mars launch in July, the UAE’s science minister said the mission would foster ambition and a passion for space exploration in the country’s youthful population. 

“It was a dream that we never dared to dream, because we didn’t think it was possible, for the UAE to have a space programme, let alone to send a spacecraft to Mars,” said Sarah Al Amiri. 

In the long term, the UAE has an even bolder goal for its space project, which is to establish a human colony on Mars by 2117.