Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has already started working on a second rover to the moon, a top official from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) revealed on Wednesday, local media reported.
Dr Hamad Al Marzouqi, project manager for the Emirates Lunar Mission (EML) at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), revealed while speaking at a plenary session on the ‘Mission of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center: From Earth to Mars, passing through the Moon’ in the seventh session at the international. Space Operations Conference in Dubai.
This comes after UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi went into space on March 2 aboard the SpaceX Dragon named Endeavor.
As per media reports, the Japanese lander carrying the Rashid rover has traveled 1.6 million kilometers and is scheduled to land on moon on April 25.
It’s no secret that lunar landing missions have a low success rate, with a 40-50 percent chance of an Emirati rover successfully landing on the moon.
“Whether we successfully land on the moon or not, well, it’s a risky business but again it’s not the end. We have already started working and planning for the next operation at MBRSC irrespective of this success. We’ve started work on the concepts and objectives but have not decided on a name yet.”
“It’s not the end, if it doesn’t happen this time, it will be (considered) a trial and we will continue with the second, third and so and so forth (missions) until we succeed.”
Dr Hamad Al Marzouqi was quoted as saying by Khaleej Times.
