UAE launches new mission to land on the moon by 2024

The UAE has launched a new mission ‘Rashid’ to explore the moon.

The Emirates Lunar Mission will oversee the locally-built explorer land on the moon’s surface in 2024.

محمد بن راشد:أطلقنا بحمد الله مشروعا إماراتيا جديدا لاستكشاف القمر.سيكون عبارة عن مستكشف قمري إماراتي الصنع سيهبط على سطح القمر في 2024 في مناطق لم تصلها البعثات البشرية السابقةلاستكشافها.أسمينا المستكشف القمري “راشد” تيمنا بباني نهضة دبي،والذي علمنا كيف تكون أحلامنا كبيرة وبعيدة pic.twitter.com/UPklxifWNq

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) September 29, 2020

“We are launching the first-ever Arab mission to the moon by 2024. The lunar rover will send back images and data from new sites of the moon that haven’t been explored by previous lunar missions. The gathered data will be shared with global research centers and institutions,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

We are launching the first-ever Arab mission to the moon by 2024. The lunar rover will send back images & data from new sites of the moon that haven’t been explored by previous lunar missions. The gathered data will be shared with global research centers & institutions. pic.twitter.com/b4NQ3reLIq

— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) September 29, 2020

The Lunar mission will make the UAE the fourth country to ever reach the moon, and forms an integral pillar of the country’s ambitious plans to establish maiden human colonies on Mars by 2117. In 2017, UAE leaders launched the Dhs500m Mars Science City project, as part of the Mars 2117 strategy, to provide a viable and realistic model to simulate living on the surface of Mars.

Read: Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre to lead UAE’s Mars 2117 project

The instruments onboard the first Arab Lunar rover will include two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera, a thermal imager, a langmuir probe, an inertial measurement unit and a 3D camera.

الأهمية الاستراتيجية لمشروع #الإمارات لاستكشاف القمر…

The strategic goals of the Emirates Lunar Mission… pic.twitter.com/Uw40XYRIRy

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) September 29, 2020

On July 20, the Hope Probe lifted off from the Tanegashima Island in Japan on a 493.5 million km long journey, in what was the UAE’s – and the Arab world’s – first mission to Mars.

Read more: Video: UAE Hope Probe bound for Mars successfully launches from Japan