The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is on the hunt for a landing vehicle that can take its Rashid 2 rover to the Moon's surface, an Emirati space official has said.
The space centre's first Rashid rover, on the country's maiden Moon mission, crash-landed on the lunar surface last year after the soft landing planned for the vehicle carrying it failed.
Adnan Al Rais, one of the assistant directors general at MBRSC, said at a media briefing on Thursday that they were monitoring the progress of space agencies and companies working on lunar landers.
"We're looking into all options, whether from space agencies or from the private sector, and monitoring their progress as well on their first mission and their plans for follow-up missions," Mr Al Rais said in response to a question by The National.
"The team plans to complete the feasibility study by mid year. Based on that, we will know the potential landing site."
Securing a lunar landing vehicle is crucial for MBRSC because it provides the essential technology for safely delivering the rover to the surface.
Lessons learnt from first Moon mission
The first Rashid rover was launched aboard the Hakuto-r Mission 1 lander, built by ispace, a Japanese company.
It failed to touch down on the surface because of a software issue that caused it to miscalculate its altitude, and ultimately ran out of fuel moments before landing.
Despite Hakuto-R's ultimate failure, engineers who worked on the rover were able to get plenty of data during the journey to the Moon and while in lunar orbit, according to Mr Al Rais.
"We had the advantage that our first mission took four months until we reached the surface of the Moon," he said.
"So, during that phase, we collected a lot of data. We understood the performance of the mission throughout the launch cruise phase all the way to the last few metres before landing.
"All of that helped us to also work on the second model and advance our technologies."
Limited options for a lunar lander
Only the US, the former Soviet Union, China and most recently India have been able to successfully carry out a soft lunar landing, which is when the vehicle touches down gently on the surface without crashing, so its hardware and instruments stay intact.
India succeeded in placing its Vikram lander in 2023, while China has been able to place three landers on the lunar surface between 2013 to 2020.
This means China has the highest success rate of lunar landings in this modern era of space exploration.
MBRSC had signed an agreement with China's space agency in 2022 to send Rashid 2 on board its Chang'e-7 mission in 2026, but that deal is seemingly no longer valid.
Russia made a failed attempt in 2023, its first Moon mission in more than 50 years.
The US has not been back to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
American companies are trying to reach the surface in this modern space era, with Astrobotic failing recently when its Peregrine lander suffered a fuel leak shortly after launch.
An Israeli company made a hard landing in 2019.
US-based Intuitive Machines launched its Nova-C lunar lander on Thursday and it will attempt a soft touchdown on February 22.
MBZ-Sat satellite
During the media briefing, MBRSC officials also gave updates on other projects that engineers and scientists were working on, including the MBZ-Sat satellite.
Named after President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the satellite is expected to be the most powerful imaging satellite in the region.
The space centre secured a launch on a rideshare mission on a SpaceX rocket, with a launch expected some time this year.
Amer Al Sayegh, senior director of the space engineering department at MBRSC, said it is the biggest satellite developed in the region, weighing about one tonne.
"We've been working on it since 2020 and we've done a lot of development and effort to reach this point today," he said.
Local companies have helped to develop most of the satellite, with the space centre hoping to get the private sector involved in more missions.
KhalifaSat was the first Earth-observation satellite built in-house by Emirati engineers, and was launched in 2018 by a Japanese rocket.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
How it works
A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank
Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night
The charge is stored inside a battery
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A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes
This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode
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The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
