UAE Hopes This Tiny Lunar Rover will Discover Unexplored Parts of the Moon

It is an elite club of just three nations: the US, Russia and China -- the only countries to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon. Now, the United Arab Emirates is trying to join them, announcing an unmanned moon mission planned for 2024.

The UAE's mission is designed as a stepping stone towards the exploration of Mars, which the Gulf nation is targeting with its Mars 2117 project. Earlier this year, the project took off with the launch of a probe -- named Al Amal, or "Hope" -- due to reach the red planet's orbit in February 2021.

The new lunar mission involves a small rover, to be built entirely at Dubai's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC). Inaugurated in 2006, the center has already designed and built Earth-orbit satellites under an all-Emirati team, but the rover is its most ambitious technological undertaking to date.

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