Published 3:40 AM EST, Sun December 11, 2022 Link Copied! The Rashid Rover, shown in this rendering, has become the first ever Arab-built lunar spacecraft to launch into space. It is being delivered by the HAKUTO-R lander, engineered to the moon by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace. Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) The lunar rover has four wheels and weighs just 10 kilograms (22 pounds). Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) Built in Dubai, the rover 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). -/AFP/AFP via Getty Images 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. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS 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. Indian Space research Organisation 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. NASA VIPER, roughly the size of a golf cart, is being tested at NASA's Simulated Lunar Operations Lab in Ohio. NASA The planned UAE lunar mission is a sign of the country's growing space ambitions. In July 2020, a probe named Al Amal, or "Hope," launched for Mars. It reached its orbit in February 2021. MBRSC