China and United Arab Emirates agree on joint lunar rover mission
- China’s Chang’e 7 mission, scheduled for 2026, plans to deliver the UAE’s Rashid 2 rover to the surface of the moon’s southern polar region
- The mission hopes to explore the bottoms of craters for possible reserves of ice, a vital resource for any human habitation on the moon
China has agreed to partner with the United Arab Emirates in an unmanned landing mission to the moon, with the two countries’ space agencies signing a pact in Dubai last week.
The unique Chinese mission to the moon’s southern polar region will deliver a hopping device that can move in and out of a crater’s permanently shadowed area, seeking evidence of water.
According to the China National Space Administration, the probe will be the first of its kind, able to repeatedly take off, touch down and fly over a certain distance on the lunar surface – moving across a wider area with greater mobility than a land rover.
The probe can be fully charged by solar energy in areas exposed to sunlight, like crater rims. It can then hop to the shadowy bottom of craters, which may hold reserves of water in the form of ice – a vital resource for long-term human lunar habitation.
Chinese engineers were still working on the probe in March, according to China Daily.
The spider-like detector will be equipped with four or six legs and an instrument called a water molecule analyser, for measuring the content of water ice, organic molecules and hydrogen isotopes in lunar soils.