NEW DELHI — After the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, the National Space Commission has cleared the fifth lunar mission -- the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission or Lupex.
The Lupex mission will explore the Moon for water and other resources. It is a collaborative effort between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The mission is also part of India’s larger lunar roadmap that envisages sending an astronaut to the Moon and bringing him or her safely back.
Importantly, the Lupex mission could reportedly live for up to 100 days on the lunar surface -- over five times the duration of Chandrayaan-3’s mission life.
The Lupex rover and rocket will be built by JAXA, while the lander system will be developed by ISRO. The Lupex rover, which could weigh a significant 350 kg, will be much larger than Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover which weighed 26 kg.
The mission will land at the exact lunar south pole (90-degree latitude) and will probe the Moon for water and other valuable resources.
Further, the Indo-Japanese mission will analyse the quantity, and distribution of water on the lunar surface and below ground. Lupex will also conduct a probe into water’s mix with dry regolith -- the layer of loose rock and dust on top of the Moon’s bedrock.
With previous lunar missions successfully showing its prowess in orbiting, landing and rovering, the Lupex mission will explore the permanently shadowed regions or the dark side of the moon and gain expertise on its surface through drilling and in-situ experiments. This will help in future sampling missions and the landing of humans on the surface of the moon by 2040.
In recent times, India and Japan have made significant strides in lunar exploration.
In August 2023, Chandrayaan-3’s landing near the lunar south pole made India the fourth country to achieve a successful Moon landing, followed by Japan’s January 2024 success with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), making Japan the fifth country to land on the Moon.