Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Yamana Badwan, Staff Reporter

The operations team at the control centre in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, is preparing to conduct the third maneuver in the orbital control of the “Rashid explorer” lander, coinciding with its arrival at the highest altitude above Earth, 1.4 million kilometres, on January 20, after 12 days.

According to “iSpace”, the “Haktor R” lander will start entering the lunar orbit for a period of a whole month, from the moment it reaches the furthest distance from the planet Earth, by reorienting its trajectory in the correct way, so that a kind of free fall towards lunar gravity will be performed, meaning the success of the fifth stage.

“Haktor R” , carrying the first Emirati mission to explore the moon, successfully conducted the first orbital control maneuver on December 15, when it reached a height of 550,000 kilometres from Earth, which allowed it to be set on its trajectory towards the moon.

On January 2, “Haktor R” successfully made its second maneuver into lunar orbit. It takes about 140 days to reach the surface of the moon, as the ground station team at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai coordinates with the iSpace control centre team throughout that phase daily, for about 10 minutes, with a series of tests to check systems and devices, and perform a number of course correction maneuvers.

By the end of next April, “Haktor R” will undertake the process of landing itself on the surface of the moon, relying on its computers, in a way that makes it maintain its course, until it reaches the specified point on the surface of the moon, specifically in the “Atlas Crater” region.

It takes 12 hours for the spacecraft to reach the moon and the explorer starts to perform its mission, 8 hours of which are to ensure the integrity of all the vehicle systems and the operation of the rapid communication system.

The explorer also needs 4 hours to release the robotic arm and communication antenna, and operate the rest of the equipment, to conduct a series of tests before starting its tasks, including collecting primary data and taking pictures, which will last 10-12 Earth days, equivalent to a lunar day.