UNIPATH STAFF
Built by Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and dubbed Rashid, the first Arab-built lunar spacecraft reached the moon’s orbit courtesy of the United Arab Emirates.
The small and lightweight rover was carried into space by a Space X Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in the United States in December 2022.
The rover’s mission was to conduct scientific experiments on the moon and transmit data and images to MBRSC.
UAE Vice President and Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum called Rashid part of an ambitious UAE space program that includes investigations of Mars and Venus for the benefit of all humanity. Although the probe crash landed in a lunar crater, the knowledge gained for future missions was invaluable.
“The UAE launched Rashid probe with the aim of landing on the surface of the moon to be the fourth nation in the world and the first in the Arab community to land on the surface of the moon,” the prime minister noted on the day of the launch.
To inspire Emiratis, train a generation of engineers and scientists and promote space exploration and research in the region, the United Arab Emirates Space Agency established MBRSC in Dubai in 2006 with a focus on satellite projects, a Mars mission, a lunar mission, and the development of astronauts.
Dr. Sarah Al-Muaini, head of the team of scientists working on the mission, said: “The challenge we faced during the construction of the probe is that there isn’t a recent mission to the surface of the moon on whose scientific data we could rely and build upon for the Emirates project to explore the moon, and to overcome this challenge, we carried out a large number of studies and experiments to understand the nature of the lunar surface and to ensure the effectiveness of the technology on probe Rashid.”
In 2019 MBRSC sent astronaut Hazzaa al-Mansoori to the International Space Station. And in July 2020, the Emirates Mars Mission launched the Hope Probe to orbit that planet. Sources: Al Khaleej, CNN, The New York Times