UAE university joins China’s moon project after Arab nation’s initial bid killed by US sanctions

Name: Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years fails as spacecraft Luna-25 crashes into the moon’s surface
Uploaded: 2023-11-28T08:03:08.000Z
Duration: 3 min 1 s
Description: Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years fails as spacecraft Luna-25 crashes into the moon’s surface

A UAE university has joined China’s International Lunar Research Station, a project which aims to build a base at the moon’s south pole

It comes as the race to return to the moon heats up between China’s lunar mission and the US-led Artemis Accords

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Another partner has joined China’s International Lunar Research Station which aims to build a base at the moon’s south pole. Photo: China National Space Administration

Ling Xinin Ohio

Published: 4:03pm, 28 Nov 2023Updated: 4:40pm, 28 Nov 2023

A national university in the United Arab Emirates has become China’s latest partner in the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project, which aims to build a permanent base near the moon’s south pole by the mid-2030s.

The UAE government initially sought China’s help in sending a rover to the moon but had to drop the plan earlier this year due to US sanctions.

A memorandum of understanding on ILRS-related cooperation was signed between the University of Sharjah and China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) last week, during the Arabic Conference of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences which took place at the university.

The two sides plan to collaborate and exchange data on lunar science and other issues, and China welcomed all Arab countries to join the project, DSEL said on its official WeChat account on Wednesday.

The new partnership brought the total number of members of the China-led ILRS to more than a dozen, as opposed to the US-led Artemis Accords which now has 32 signatories.

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Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years fails as spacecraft Luna-25 crashes into the moon’s surface

Besides Russia, the national space agencies of Venezuela, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Belarus have signed up to the ILRS since July, according to official releases from the DSEL since its inauguration in February last year.

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