UAE hopes this tiny lunar rover will discover unexplored parts of the moon

By Jacopo Prisco, CNN

Updated 9:16 PM ET, Tue November 24, 2020

The UAE has announced a moon mission for 2024. It will use an unusually small rover, with just four wheels and a weight of 10 kilograms (22 pounds).
Photos:
The UAE has announced a moon mission for 2024. It will use an unusually small rover, with just four wheels and a weight of 10 kilograms (22 pounds).
Hide Caption
1 of 16
The rover, which will be built in Dubai, is much smaller than the last rover successfully deployed on the moon; China's Yutu-2 has six wheels and weighs 140 kilograms (310 pounds).
Photos:
The rover, which will be built in Dubai, is much smaller than the last rover successfully deployed on the moon; China's Yutu-2 has six wheels and weighs 140 kilograms (310 pounds).
Hide Caption
2 of 16
By comparison, Curiosity, NASA's only currently active Mars rover, is bigger still -- weighing 899 kilograms (1,982 pounds), the size of a small SUV.
Photos:
By comparison, Curiosity, NASA's only currently active Mars rover, is bigger still -- weighing 899 kilograms (1,982 pounds), the size of a small SUV.
Hide Caption
3 of 16
The UAE is trying to join an elite club of only three countries -- the US, Russia and China -- to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. In 2019, India's Chandrayaan-2 mission crash-landed on the moon. Here you can see its rover on a ramp moving into the main vehicle, before launch.
Photos:
The UAE is trying to join an elite club of only three countries -- the US, Russia and China -- to successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. In 2019, India's Chandrayaan-2 mission crash-landed on the moon. Here you can see its rover on a ramp moving into the main vehicle, before launch.
Hide Caption
4 of 16
China's Yutu-2 is the only active lunar rover, but NASA is looking to add one of its own. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is a mobile robot that will roam around the moon's south pole looking for water ice.
Photos:
China's Yutu-2 is the only active lunar rover, but NASA is looking to add one of its own. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, is a mobile robot that will roam around the moon's south pole looking for water ice.
Hide Caption
5 of 16
VIPER, roughly the size of a golf cart, is being tested at NASA's Simulated Lunar Operations Lab in Ohio.
Photos:
VIPER, roughly the size of a golf cart, is being tested at NASA's Simulated Lunar Operations Lab in Ohio.
Hide Caption
6 of 16