'Rashid Rover just sent first message': Sheikh Mohammed announces successful communication with lunar explorer

DUBAI: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai on Wednesday announced that a message has been received from Rashid Rover, the Arab world's first lunar mission.

"From a distance of 440,000 km, from the surface of the Earth, the explorer Rashid just sent the first message to the space center in Al Khawaneej.", he tweeted. The ruler of Dubai also said that all the instruments of the Rashid rover are working properly and that in the coming months it will begin to enter lunar orbit in preparation for landing.

The Rashid rover is planned to land in the Atlas Crater on the north side of the moon. The rover with four wheels and a weight of 10 kg will land on the moon by April 2023. If the mission is successful, the UAE will be the fourth country to land a rover on the lunar surface after the US, Russia and China.

The rover is named after the former ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid bin Zayed Al Maktoum. The Rashid rover will study the nature of lunar soil, rocks, dust, and the moon's photoelectron shield. Rashid is equipped with two high resolution cameras, a microscopic camera and a thermal imaging camera.