UAE Partners With China to Help Further Its Moon Exploration Ambitions

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made a new ally in the space race to the Moon as it collaborates with China to help further its lunar exploration ambitions.

Its fledgling space program, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), announced its partnership with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Twitter Friday. The partnership will pave the way for future collaborations between the two nations.

UAE and China's Moon Exploration Agreement

According to Space.com, the newly forged agreement is the first space sector agreement between China and UAE. The agreement stipulates that the UAE will collaborate with China to land its lunar rover aboard a CNSA lander on the Moon as part of the upcoming Emirates Lunar Mission.

UAE's MBRSC has already worked with two private-sector partners on the Emirates Lunar Mission that will send the small Rashid rover to the Moon later this year. One of its mission is the robotic mission that will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, while its 22-pound Rashid will touch down aboard Japan's Hakuto-R lander by the Tokyo-based company ispace.

Collaborating with China for UAE's future lunar missions is seen as a good decision given the former's impressive lunar exploration record so far. China has launched three lunar missions in the past decade and all of them have been successful.

For instance, its Chang'e 3 mission successfully put a lander-rover duo on the Moon's near side in December 2013, while its Chang'e 4 mission landed a similar pair on the Moon's far side a month later. Then in late 2020, the Chang'e 5 mission brought Moon samples to Earth, which pulled off the first lunar sample return effort since the 1970s.

UAE's Hope in the Space Race

UAE's Lunar Mission and its newly announced partnership with China are part of the country's efforts to become more of a space player as the space race intensifies.

In 2019, the nation sent its first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri to the International Space Station (ISS). Then another UAE astronaut, Sultan Al Neyadi, will travel to ISS for a six-month stay next year as part of the Crew-6 mission of SpaceX for NASA.

UAE has also launched the Emirates Mars Mission in 2020, which sent an orbiter called Hope to Mars. The orbiter arrived safely in February 2021 and continues to study the Red Planet's atmosphere and climate from its orbital location today. They are also planning missions to be sent to the asteroid belt later this decade.

Gizmodo reports that although considered a newbie in the space race, the wealthy gulf nation has successfully put its mark and is determined to enter the industry, which is dominated by the US, Europe, China, and Russia, as they work to diversify their economy.

They have now set their sights on the Moon and plan to launch Emirates Lunar Mission later this year with the help of SpaceX and Hakuto-R, and with China under their newly forged agreement.

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