News in focus LUNAR LANDINGS . The UAE craft will include an China’s Chang’e-5 mission is the first to collect lunar material since the Soviet and US missions in the experiment to study the thermal properties of 1960s and 1970s. It will touch down in the northern part of Oceanus Procellarum, a vast lava plain. the ’s surface, providing insights into the US mission Soviet mission composition of the lunar landscape. Another experiment will study the make-up and parti- cle size of lunar dust in microscopic detail, says Hamad Al Marzooqi, project manager for the

Chang’e-5 lunar mission at the MBRSC. landing site Rashid’s most exciting instrument is a Langmuir probe, says Sargeant. A first on the Moon, this will study the plasma of charged particles that hovers at the lunar surface, Oceanus Procellarum Luna 24 caused by the streaming solar wind. This envi- ronment electrically charges dust in a process that is little understood, she says. Surface-based experiments to understand the charged environment are essential, because the conditions make lunar dust stick to surfaces, which could be dangerous for

future crewed missions, she adds. “It’s really NASA IMAGE: that could contain volcanic lava formed as counting craters. The general rule is that older sharp, tiny grains that get everywhere, that recently as one billion or two billion years ago. regions have more and larger craters, whereas stick everywhere and can be hazardous to If Chang’e-5’s samples confirm that the younger regions have fewer and smaller ones. astronauts if they inhale a lot.” Moon was still active during this time, “we These relative ages are then given absolute Rashid will land at an unexplored location at will rewrite the history of the Moon”, says Xiao. dates using samples from the Moon. But no a latitude between 45 degrees north or south Studying the rocks’ composition could also samples exist for the period between 850 mil- of the equator on the Moon’s near side. This clarify what fuelled this thermal activity for lion years and 3.2 billion years ago. Chang’e-5 allows for easier communication with so long. could fill that gap. “The Moon is the only place than would be the case for a far-side probe, The Moon is also an important reference where we have samples that we know exactly and should also mean a landing that is less for dating planets, based on the method of where they came from,” says van der Bogert. rocky than one in the Moon’s polar regions. The precise location, however, has yet to be selected from a shortlist of five. The mission is scheduled to last at least one lunar day — around 14 Earth days — and Rashid could travel anywhere from a few hundred UAE ANNOUNCES metres to several kilometres. The team is hop- ing the craft will also last through the equally FIRST ARAB long lunar night, when the temperature drops to around −173 °C. Previous rovers often car- MOON MISSION ried a heat source. But overnight survival will mean developing new technology for a diminu- The United Arab Emirates has already launched a tive rover, says Adnan Al Rais, programme man- ager for the UAE’s long-term initiative to settle Mars orbiter and is ramping up its space ambitions. humans on the red planet, known as Mars 2117, which also encompasses lunar exploration. He By Elizabeth Gibney of the mission. If successful, Rashid would be declined to reveal the Rashid mission’s budget, one of several rovers made by private firms but said that all scientific data would be openly he United Arab Emirates (UAE) has and space agencies that are set to populate available to the international community. announced plans to send a compact the Moon by 2024 (see page 185). rover named Rashid to study the Addressing challenges Moon in 2024. The revelation marks Scientific study The Emirates Lunar Mission is the first of a an intensification in the small nation’s For a country with just 14 years’ experience series of missions that are intended as a plat- Tspacefaring ambitions. If Rashid is successful, in any kind of space exploration — and which form for developing technologies, says Al the UAE Space Agency could become only the this year launched its first interplanetary Rais. The technologies will eventually support fourth to operate a craft on the Moon’s surface, orbiter on a journey to Mars — building a rover missions to the Martian surface, and address and the first in the Arab world. presents a host of fresh challenges. food, energy and water-security challenges The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre The relatively simple rover will have six back home, where natural resources can be (MBRSC) in Dubai says its in-house teams will scientific instruments, including four cam- similarly scarce. “It’s challenging, but as you develop, build and operate the 10-kilogram eras. “They’re not biting off more than they know we love challenges here in the UAE,” says rover, which is named after the late Sheikh can chew at this stage,” says Hannah Sargeant, Sara Al Maeeni, an engineer on the Rashid’s Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who ruled a planetary scientist at the Open University communication system. Dubai at the UAE’s creation in 1971. in Milton Keynes, UK. “I think they’re actually Rashid’s low weight also means it can fly on a The team will hire an as-yet unannounced being quite smart about it.” commercial lander, which could reduce the mis- space agency or commercial partner to carry Rashid will be just one-tenth of the mass of sion’s overall cost. Being small and light means out the launch and landing, the riskiest part China’s Chang’e-4, the only currently active “it’s faster in development and easier to find a

186 | Nature | Vol 587 | 12 November 2020 ©2020 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All rights reserved. ©2020 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All rights reserved.

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MBRSC a given. far, So only Chinese, Soviet and tional partnerships, hesays. the UAE. However, itwillstill involve interna that theentire lunarrover willbedeveloped in US andEmirati engineers,AlMarzooqi stresses was largely built in the United States by both Unlike the country’s Hope Mars mission, which series of rapid prototypes, says AlMarzooqi. probes. They alsoplanto modelandhonea designing Rashidbased onprevious successful ing ontheproject foraround two years, andis a lightweight rover, says AlMaeeni. only thelimited power andantenna lengthof across the384,000 kilometres with to Earth Particularly challenging will be sending signals and itsheatingcommunication systems. — inbuildingtherover’s mechanical structure, ments, a robotic mission will require new skills satellites, orbiters and remote-sensing instru ing home-grown engineers. to helpbuildanddesignmissions, whiletrain international partners academic and industry spacefaring nationthrough of hiring apolicy justany 10 field years ago. Itrapidly becamea old, and the nation awarded PhD in its first country’s satellite programme only14 years The UAE Space Agency isjust 6years old.The International partnerships scientific objectives, headds. the lunar surface, with a variety of locations and will allow the UAE to send frequent missions to lift to thelunarsurface”, says AlMarzooqi. This An artist’s impression ofRashid, theUAE’s lunarrover, whichwillincludehigh-resolution cameras, athermalimagerandLangmuirprobe. That Rashidwill get to theMoonisnot The rover team attheMRBSChasbeenwork Although the country nowAlthough thecountry hasexpertise in - - - - I independent.” stalls, addsAl Rais.“Our plansare totally Lunar Mission willgo aheadeven ifArtemis return of humansto theMoon—Emirates with Artemis —aninternational NASA-led although themission’s 2024 date coincides mission was themost recent to doso. And have crashed; India’s 2019 Chandrayaan-2 has yet succeeded. More than20 landers safely ontheMoon,andnoprivate company posed drugs for‘restricted emergency use’ for of India (DCGI) has approved several re­ tial therapies. The Drugs Controller General By Gayathri Vaidyanathan yet there islittleevidence thatthey work. The treatments are being widelyprescribed, US space agencies have landedspacecraft COVID DRUGS IN INDIA USE OF UNPROVEN SCIENTISTS CRITICIZE ©

country’s drugregulator ishandlingpoten researchers are concerned abouthow the ate needforeffective treatments. But est COVID-19 outbreak, there is a desper n India,whichhastheworld’s second-larg 2 0 2 0

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A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e pur d . - - - - in thepandemic,” says AnantBhan,apub rovers and landers as a precursor to the have definitive treatments available.” in Mangalore. “It’s a new virus where we don’t lic-health researcher atYenepoya University effectiveness isunconvincing sofar. argueics that the manufacturers’ data on their what basis thedrugs were approved, andcrit such powers. Yet scientists say it’s unclear on treating thedisease, timeithasused thefirst national efforts,” says AlMarzooqi. we want to beakey contributor to these inter send landersorrovers inthenext five years. and Russia are among the nations planning to pean Space Agency, China,India,Israel, Japan the Moon beginning in 2021, while the Euro to fly andtechnical scientific experiments to project.Artemis plansto NASA pay companies Nature |Vol 587 |12 November 2020 |187 “Transparency is even more important “Everyone isrushingto go to theMoon,and The next few years could see aflurry of

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