Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, , today announced Rashid 2, a new Emirati lunar mission that will be undertaken by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC).
He made the announcement as he paid a visit to the the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, where he met with the team behind the UAE’s first attempt to land a rover on the lunar surface. He stressed the importance of determination in achieving success in the space industry, noting that the the UAE will continue to launch new space exploration missions, reports WAM.
“Though the attempt to land the Rashid Rover on the moon was unsuccessful, we kept our aspirations high.”, he added. The Rashid Rover, integrated into iSpace’s HAKUTO-R lander, successfully lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 11th December at 11:38 UAE time from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force, Florida. The ELM marked the first Emirati lunar mission, making the UAE the first Arab country to ascend toward the lunar surface.
The world’s most compact rover, the Rashid Rover was built to traverse and explore the Moon’s surface with a unique configuration. Weighing about 10 kilograms, the Rover is around 80 centimetres high, around 53.5 centimetres long, and close to 53.85 centimetres wide.
MBRSC partnered with 10 international and four UAE-based entities for the Emirates Lunar Mission’s science programme. In collaboration with close to 40 scientists and researchers, MBRSC developed the main instruments, the optical cameras, microscopic imager and Langmuir probe on board the Rashid Rover.
Source: Bahrain News Agency
