Revealed: UAE to modify Moon landing site for second lunar rover after Rashid Rover 1 lander crash

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During a press tour of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) in Dubai, Adnan Al Rais, project director of the Emirates Lunar Mission at MBRSC, provided updates on the country’s second lunar rover.
“We are currently working on the feasibility study to select the department that could provide the lander to take the Rashid Rover 2 to the surface of the Moon,” he said.
“We are looking at all options, whether from space agencies or the private sector, and we are also monitoring their progress on their first mission and their plans for follow-up missions.”
Entities under consideration include Japanese company iSpace, which built the Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander carrying Rashid Rover 1. The lander attempted a soft landing on the Moon on April 26, 2023, but hit the surface with force, scattering large pieces of debris. the landing site.
Al Rais said the team plans to complete the feasibility study by the middle of this year and select the lander. Based on this, he said a new landing site will be announced.
The Rashid Rover 1 landing site, Atlas Crater, located at 47.5°N, 44.4°E, on the southeastern outer edge of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold) in the lunar far north, was chosen to maintain its flexibility during operations.
Although he did not give further details about the new landing site, Al Rais said that the MBRSC will also incorporate additional science depending on the new landing site, including as it will continue with scientific experiments assigned to the Rashid Rover 1.
“So when we go to a different region, then maybe the initial science that we selected for the first rover is not viable for that particular area. “So this is an area that we are also exploring and that we want to do: unique science at the selected landing site based on the lander that we will select.”
He said the team aims to improve the technologies used on Rashid Rover 1, particularly in mobility, communication and on-board systems, building on lessons learned from the first mission.
“We had the advantage that our first mission took four months to travel through orbit until we reached the surface of the Moon. So during that phase, we collect a lot of data. We understood the performance of the mission throughout the launch, the cruise phase, until the last meters before landing. So all that helped us to also be able to work on the second model. [by] advance our technologies.”
MBRSC will continue experiments such as determining material adhesion, where samples from various universities are placed on the rover’s wheels and delivered to the surface of the moon. Discussions are underway with local and international universities about selecting samples for the second rover mission.
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