The UAE’s “Rashid Rover” lunar rover was successfully launched into space and will start a five-month mission to the moon.
Yesterday, a Japanese private lunar lander Hakuto-R carrying the UAE lunar rover and other payloads was launched from the Space Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 the rocket and the lander were developed by the Japanese company ispace.
▲ Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched Hakuto-R
If all goes according to plan, Hakuto-R will make a soft landing on the moon next spring, the first for a Japanese-built spacecraft.
The Hakuto-R lander is expected to land in April 2023 in the Atlas crater on the southeastern edge of the moon Mare Frigoris. The most notable payload is a 10kg lunar rover called the Rashid rover, the UAE’s first-ever lunar rover.
▲ Concept map of Hakuto-R landing on the moon
If it can reach the moon smoothly, the “Rashid rover” will use the camera to take pictures and conduct a series of environmental detection.
On the other hand, the Japanese company ispace plans to launch another lander to the moon in 2024 and a third after 2025. After 2025, ispace aims to launch missions to the lunar surface twice a year, provide facilities for various payloads, and help develop lunar frontier technologies. If the landing is successful, Japan will become the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon after the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
