The Image Acquisition Systems On-Board the Rashid Rover of the Emirates Lunar Mission

We present the imaging system configuration of the Rashid lunar rover mission. The Rashid rover is an ambitious robotic mission to the Moon led by the United Arab Emirates and developed at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai. The mission is currently scheduled for launch during Q4 of 2022. The optical imaging system on the 10 kg rover is composed of 3 high-definition optical colour cameras (Cam-1, Cam-2, Cam-M) and a single thermal camera (Cam-T). Cam-1 is mounted on the rover mast. It has a wide field of view of approximately 120 degrees and is capable of rotating 360 degrees in all directions. Cam-2 is a stationary camera with an optical design identical to that of Cam-1 and is fixed to the rear of the rover. Cam-M is a microscopic imager mounted on the front of the rover. It will be able to acquire high resolution colour images of the lunar surface. Its field of view spans an area of approximately 4x5 cm on the lunar surface with an average spatial resolution of about 25 microns per pixel. Complementing the optical imagers is a low-spatial resolution thermal camera (Cam-T) with an approximate field of view of 30 degrees. The thermal camera is fixed and is mounted at the back of the rover with its optical axis parallel to that of Cam-2. In this paper we present the design characteristics of the imaging systems of the Rashid rover, their calibration profiles, as well as discuss their mission goals and present possible operational scenarios.