The UAE is partnering with Japanese company iSpace to launch a moon rover in 2022 - CNN

It will also supply the lander that transports the rover from the moon's orbit to the lunar surface, according to Adnan AlRais, MBRSC's Mars 2117 program manager.

Landing on the moon

Only three nations -- the US, Russia and China -- have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon.

The UAE had originally planned to send its rover to the moon in 2024, but AlRais tells CNN that MBRSC "saw an opportunity to launch even earlier with ispace."

The UAE mission hopes to learn more about lunar dust, the moon's soil, and airless bodies -- space objects that lack an atmosphere.

AlRais says one of the experiments could also help determine the kinds of materials used in space suits or the landing systems used to put humans on the moon.