We have received some news about the Arab’s first Longest Space mission. The Emirates Lunar Mission has been in focus for quite some time for UAE. The recent update is a little sad though. We heard that the Japanese corporation that launched the lander carrying the UAE’s Rashid Rover to the Moon lost communication with it. The planned landing for Tuesday night definitely didn’t go as planned!
MBRSC Informed Us About The Lost Connection
An official announcement by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre on the Emirates Lunar Mission “Rashid Rover”. pic.twitter.com/P63JQCZ2PA
— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) April 26, 2023
As mission control in Tokyo was unable to establish communication with the lander, the statement from ispace during its live broadcast came about 30 minutes after the Moon landing time at 8.40 pm in the United Arab Emirates.
At the very end of the landing, the Japanese corporation had previously acknowledged that communication had been established, but it abruptly broke off, cutting off both parties. Takeshi Hakamada, the CEO of ispace, has reaffirmed that engineers at the mission control centre would keep examining the lander’s condition.
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What Exactly Happened With Rashid Rover?
Our HAKUTO-R M1 lunar lander was scheduled to land on the surface of the Moon at approx. 1:40 (JST). As of 8:00 today (JST), communication between the lander at the Mission Control Center was lost and it has been determined that Success 9 of the milestones is not achievable.(1/3)
— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 26, 2023
Mission 1 of Hakuto At 8.40 p.m. (UAE time), a lunar lander carrying an Emirati-built rover was scheduled to touch down on the moon. The lander was travelling at a speed of around 16 mph (25 kph) as it sank the final 33 feet (10 metres). As the minutes passed without hearing from the lander, flight controllers in Tokyo watched their screens without expressing anything.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre had previously described the difficulties that the Rashid Rover will face during the landing attempt. MBRSC is the organisation in charge of the Emirates Lunar Mission (ELM).
The Centre had identified surface risks such as craters and debris as well as the lander derailing from its course, communication loss, unpleasant landing owing to climatic changes or lander defects as well as substantial hurdles.
Only 50% of lunar mission attempts are successful. Only the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China have attempted soft lunar landing efforts that were successful. India and Israel each performed a hard landing on the moon, which led to the landers’ crashes.
Key updates about the landing of the HAKUTO-R lander carrying aboard the Rashid Rover were presented by the Project Manager, Emirates Lunar Mission, MBRSC. He gave a quick overview of the mission’s following stages as well.
Cover Image Courtesy: Twitter/ Salem AlMarri