The UAE’s first Moon mission moved closer for takeoff, with Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre’s (MBRSC) Rashid Rover officially clearing all required tests, the space centre said.
The rover is expected to be launched during November 9 – 15, 2022 at the earliest.
“Congratulations to the Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM) team that worked tirelessly to get Rashid Rover ready for the launch,” Salem Al Marri, Director General of MBRSC, said on Wednesday.
“The lunar mission will engineer a new scientific reality for Emiratis and pave the way for more space exploration missions by MBRSC,” he said.
Al Marri said the mission exemplified the UAE’s spirit of innovation and scientific progress, while also contributing to global space science research and explorations.
Over the last four months, the rover was exposed to a series of rigorous internal and external reviews.
The reviews were designed to test out every one of the multitudes of systems and subsystems of the rover during the launch stage, cruise stage, and descent stage.
Beginning of the year, the ELM rover completed the assembly and first set of full functional tests of the flight model in the laboratories of MBRSC.
In the second phase, the Rashid Rover completed a series of environmental tests at Toulouse, France, including evaluation of the final thermal and vacuum tests within the Airbus facility.
The second and last section of the environmental tests included rigorous vibration and shock checks of the flight model at the CNES Labs.
For this, the rover was shaken on a vibration table simulating the environment the rover will encounter during the launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The tests campaign concluded in Germany with the final phase of checks on the interfaces with the space lander that will safely deliver the rover to the Moon’s surface.
This phase also included instrument alignment checks, such as imaging systems, and a final functional test of the integrated system following the environmental campaign.
Dr. Hamad AlMarzooqi, project manager of ELM said: “We are now all cleared and ready for the next step, which is the launch vehicle integration process, which is the final stage of our lunar mission before launch.”
“The science and technology of this mission are going to help us address major questions about the geologic and surface science of the moon that we’ve been working on for years, and we’re excited to share our journey with the world,” he said.
Rashid Rover is built fully indigenous by Emirati scientists in the state-of-the-art laboratories of MBRSC based in the UAE.
It is equipped with the latest technologies and a deliberated design to enable all the planned scientific research work.
The primary goal of the mission is to study the moon’s plasma and to provide answers about moon dust, the lunar surface, mobility on the moon’s surface, and how different surfaces interact with lunar particles.
ELM is one of the missions funded by the ICT Fund of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA).
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