Turkey is planning to send an exploration rover to the Moon by 2030. The rover, which could be launched within 2028-29, will land and collect scientific data from the surface of the moon.

The ambitious plans were revealed by Serdar Hüseyin Yildirim, President of the Turkish Space Agency (TUA), speaking on June 16 at the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) in St. Petersburg, Russia, according to Space. com.

Yildirim said the rocket carrying the rover to the Moon would be built in Turkey, using a hybrid engine already being developed in the country. As he said, “We intend to use our own machine to reach the moon.”

The rocket will initially make a test flight and possibly an “abnormal” landing on the Moon at the end of 2023, a year that coincides with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic by Kemal Ataturk. Turkish engineers want to gather the necessary data in order to make it possible for the rover to land smoothly at the end of the decade.

The initial presentation of the Turkish space program was made by President Erdogan in February this year, the same day that the United Arab Emirates made history in the Arab and Muslim world in general, as a spacecraft entered orbit around Mars. The ten-year Turkish program, among other things, envisages a Turkish spacecraft, as well as the development of a domestic satellite system, although not many details have been made public.

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