Dubai Ruler announces new UAE Moon rover mission
▶ Mission control in Tokyo lost contact with the module moments before touchdown was expected
The UAE will embark on a second attempt to land a rover on the Moon, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said yesterday.
The Vice President and Ruler of Dubai said the Rashid 2 project would start immediately. The announcement came after Japan’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 spacecraft, carrying the Rashid rover, “probably” crashed as it tried to land on the lunar surface, developer ispace said.
Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter that Rashid 1 was on the Moon “carrying the flag of the Emirates”.
“We are a country founded on ambition,” he said.
“We are a country that has not stopped since December 2, 1971. It will not stop. It will not turn around. It will not set small goals for itself.”
Despite Tuesday’s setback, the UAE “succeeded in raising the ceiling of our ambitions to reach the Moon”, Sheikh Mohammed said.
“And we succeeded in creating a team of our young men and women capable of managing advanced space projects.”
Rashid 1 was the first mission under the UAE’s homegrown Moon exploration programme, which took a team of 11 engineers at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre six years to build. No date was set for a second attempt.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, said Sheikh Mohammed had “directed us to immediately start implementing the Rashid 2 project, a new attempt to land a rover on the Moon”.
“As Sheikh Mohammed once said, ‘the biggest risk is not to take any risk’,” Sheikh Hamdan said.
“Risk is an integral part of any space mission, but that has never deterred us from exploring new frontiers of space.
“Our ambition knows no bounds, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to undertake groundbreaking missions that will establish the UAE as a leading spacefaring nation.”
Japan’s ispace has said its spacecraft carrying the UAE’s Rashid rover probably crashed as it tried to land on the Moon on Tuesday.
Mission control in Tokyo lost contact with the Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander moments before touchdown was expected.
Early yesterday, ispace said that its engineers were investigating what had happened.
“Based on the currently available data, the Hakuto-R Mission Control Centre in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach to the lunar surface,” it said. “Shortly after the scheduled landing time, no data was received indicating a touchdown.”
The company said the remaining propellant in the spacecraft was decreasing during the landing attempt and shortly afterwards the descent speed rapidly increased.
This could suggest that the spacecraft ran out of fuel during the attempted touchdown, causing the engines to shut down and the lander to crash on the Moon’s surface.
“After that, the communication loss happened.
“Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface,” ispace said.
It was ispace’s first Moon mission. Its spacecraft was carrying payloads from the UAE and other countries.
The Rashid rover was the first mission to take place under the UAE’s long-term Moon exploration programme.
Emirati engineers are working on a second rover.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre thanked ispace for its efforts.
“While the Rashid rover and other payloads on board the lander did not get a chance to continue on their respective missions, the team at MBRSC is still proud of the achievements, including developing a rover and becoming the first Emirati and Arab lunar mission to enter the Moon’s orbit,” it said. Salem Al Marri, director general of the space centre, told The National that his team had developed many new skills, despite the outcome of the landing.
“My feelings are that you know, regardless of what happens, I believe that we’ve succeeded already because we built a very strong team – a team that’s capable of building missions that can work on the lunar surface,” he said.
“When you build a mission like that, it’s not only about engineering.
“It’s about all of the science, operations, command and control and all of those elements. We’ve managed to build those in-house and develop a rover built here in the UAE.” A team of 11 engineers had been working on the Rashid rover since 2017, hoping that the UAE would become the first Arab nation to place a spacecraft on the surface of another celestial body.
Ispace was also expecting to make history by becoming the first private company to complete a mission to the lunar surface.
The company has said that its business plan supports a second and third mission.
“Although we do not expect to complete the lunar landing at this time, we believe that we have fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase,” said ispace founder Takeshi Hakamada.