Advancing lunar rover mission stresses resolve

In 2018, when the UAE’S first entirely Emiratimade satellite was launched into orbit from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center using the Korean Satrec SI-300 bus, it was hard to imagine that the country would send the Arab world’s first astronaut into space the next year and its mission to Mars a year later. Arguably space missions haven’t developed at such a pace and with alacrity in other countries. The image of Hazza Al Mansouri boarding the Soyuz-ms 15 spacecraft at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and then returning to the earth in a capsule are still fresh in our memories, and so are the images of Emirates Mars Mission jetting off to the red planet and sending back its first picture in February this year. Travelling to space fuels scientific curiosity and inspires generations. In the UAE, the success of earlier projects has also emboldened the government and fired the enthusiasm of the national population to conquer greater heights. It doesn’t matter when you enter the race, what matters is how confident you are and how fast you can achieve your goals.

The revised timeline by the UAE’S space centre to launch a rover to the moon sooner than initially planned shows the confidence of the country and its youth who are fuelling such mission. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center has said it is partnering with Japan’s ispace company to send a rover to the moon on an unmanned spacecraft by 2022. It was earlier scheduled to be launched in 2024. The UAE is in a rush, but its missions are not nationalistic in their appeal. The Emirates is eager to contribute to global scientific research and space exploration. It understands and appreciates the importance of such findings. Space scientists, engineers and astronauts here are eager to work with the global community to find solutions to some of the grave problems related to global warming and climate change and develop technology and capabilities that can help develop space industry. The findings from the Emirates Mars Mission will be shared with the global community, the UAE had said.

Space exploration is vital for human race. It is the next frontier of growth, and possibly the next domain where the human race will expand. The Rashid rover, named after Dubai’s ruling family, will provide the mission with wireless communication on the lunar surface. It’s been more than half a century since the man first set foot on the moon, and yet we know little about our natural satellite. In 2008, India’s first moon mission Chandrayaan-1 sent back readings from its three instruments, one of which showed existence of water molecules in lunar atmosphere. After orbiting the moon for some 300 days, it crashed. The global space community is yet to build success on this front. The UAE’S lunar mission, if successful, will put the Emirates in a select league of nations that have their rovers landed on the moon. So far, only the US, Russia and China have had success. There is hardly a reason to doubt that it won’t.