Rashid 3

Rashid 3
OperatorUnited Arab Emirates MBRSC
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft typeLunar rover
Start of mission
Launch date2029 (planned)
Emirates Planetary Programme

Rashid 3 is a future lunar rover under development by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) as the third rover of the Emirates Lunar Mission program. It is planned to be delivered to the Lunar south pole region in 2029. Its mission is to study geographic and geological features of the lunar surface and to search for water. It will carry seven Emirati and European scientific instruments.

Instruments

Rover Permittivity Sensor

The Rover Permittivity Sensor suite (RPS) by the European Space Agency (ESA) uses electrodes on the rover's wheels for measuring the dielectric permittivity of the regolith to infer its ice content and density. It is based on the permittivity sensor in PROSPECT.

CAM-25 and CAM-8

Two cameras with Multi-Spectral Filter Arrays for spectrally distinguishing between mineralogic features on the Moon, developed by CNES.

MoonIS

MoonIS, developed by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), is a VIS–IR spectrometer for collecting hyperspectral data in the range of 0.4 to 2.3 μm. It builds upon the technical heritage of the Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies (Ma MISS) spectrometer on ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover.

Deep Regolith Sounder

The Deep Regolith Sounder (DRS) is an ultra-wideband ground-penetrating radar with a lightweight, flat, linearly polarized antenna mounted beneath the rover. Its goal is to characterize near-surface stratigraphy, detect subsurface ice and cavities, and map geological structures relevant to in situ resource utilization.

References

  1. ↑ "All the rovers heading to the Moon over the next 10 years | Moon Monday #256". jatan.space 🌙. 2026-01-05. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  2. ↑ The Emirates Lunar Program: Enabling Sustainable Lunar and Planetary Exploration through International Collaboration
  3. ↑ Emirates Lunar Mission: Past, Present & Future
  4. 1 2 "RPS: using a rover wheel in search of water on the Moon". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  5. 1 2 Plettemeier, Dirk; Laabs, M.; Geißler, F. (2026). "Deep Regolith Sounder on UEA'S Lunar Rover Mission Rashid 3". European Lunar Symposium 2026. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.20384294.
  6. ↑ Sesko, Rok; Laub, Philipp; Sedlmair, Franz; Chauhan, Shreya; Eckert, Liesa; Gscheidle, Christian; Reiss, Philipp (2026-07-02). "Experimental investigation of the soil interaction and wear of lunar rover wheel-based sensors". doi:10.5194/epsc2026-816. Retrieved 2026-10-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  7. ↑ "Rover Permittivity Sensor". Professorship of Lunar and Planetary Exploration. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  8. ↑ A Rover Permittivity Sensor for In-Situ Lunar Water Ice Detection (archived)
  9. ↑ Théret, Nicolas; ROBERT, Emilie (2026-06-01). "Demosaicing MSFA Images: A High-Resolution Spatial Approach". European Lunar Symposium, Jun 2026, Nancy, France. Zenodo. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.20380755.
  10. ↑ "The MoonIS instrument on board the Rashid 3 Rover". app.cospar-assembly.org. Retrieved 2026-10-14.