UAE and France in lunar spacecraft joint venture

The Emirates has a long-term Moon exploration plan that involves launching orbiters and rovers

An artist's impression of the UAE's lunar rover called Rashid.

Dr Hamad Al Marzooqi, project manager of the Emirates Lunar Mission at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre. Chris Whiteoak / The National

An artist's impression of iSpace's Hakuto-Reboot lunar lander. It will carry UAE's Rashid rover to the surface of the Moon in 2022.

The UAE aims to land the Rashid rover on the near side of the Moon due to its smoother surface.

The far side of the Moon remains largely unexplored, but Nasa is turning its focus back to the lunar surface.

The HAKUTO-R lander, which will deliver the UAE's Rashid rover to the lunar surface in 2022, is now in final stages of assembly.

The ispace team completed the assembly of the lander's structure thermal model in April. Courtesy: ispace

The final assembly of the lander is being carried out in co-operation with the Ariane Group GmbH at the Ariane Group facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany. Courtesy: ispace

Using a lander and rocket that is already available helps Emirati engineers and scientists get quicker and easier access to space. Courtesy: ispace

The initial concept design of the Rashid rover. Courtesy: MBRSC

Rashid rover's thermal imager will analyse the Moon's properties through thermal energy. Courtesy: MBRSC

The Langmuir probes on the rover will analyse the lunar surface charge and electric fields. Courtesy: MBRSC

One of the rover's two high-resolution optical imagers that will take photos of the Moon. Courtesy: MBRSC

The UAE and France have signed a letter of intent to develop lunar spacecrafts together.

It was among a number of important agreements and deals signed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the UAE this weekend.

The letter was signed on Saturday by officials from both the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre and the French National Centre for Space Studies (Cnes).

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and French President Emmanuel Macron were also in attendance.

“The letter of intent was signed by Salem Al Marri, director general of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, and Philippe Baptiste, chief executive of Cnes, as both parties aim to strengthen their collaboration in lunar exploration through working on advanced spacecrafts,” the space centre said.

The UAE has a long-term lunar exploration plan that involves launching several space vehicles to the Moon, including orbiters and rovers.

The French space agency is already collaborating with the UAE on its first lunar mission, which includes Rashid, a tiny 10-kilogram rover that will study lunar soil.

France has provided two optical cameras for the mission, including one to be placed on top of the Rashid rover to provide panoramic views of its surroundings.

The second camera could deliver high spatial resolution images of the lunar soil and analyse wheel-soil interaction.

Rashid will be carried to the Moon on a Japanese lander, called Hakuto-R, being built by private company ispace. Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch the mission on a Falcon 9 rocket.

The space centre is working on another rover as a backup and for use in the country’s Moon exploration programme, which could be launched in 2024 or 2025.

“To increase our chances, we are doing it this way. So, we are working on the next and the next rover,” said Hamad Al Marzooqi, project manager of the Emirates Lunar Mission.

“We will not put all our eggs in one basket. However, we are happy with ispace’s progress.

“But landing on the surface of the Moon is something very risky — even very advanced institutional agencies cannot guarantee success for landing and we have seen failures in the past couple of years.”

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