Lupex, a joint endeavour by ISRO and JAXA, is a component of India's comprehensive lunar plan to eventually land an astronaut on the Moon and return them home securely. Following Chandrayaan-3, India is ready to move forward with its lunar goals as the National Space Commission approved the fifth lunar mission—the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission, also known as Lupex.
The unique aspect of this mission is its length, as it could last up to 100 days on the moon's surface, which is more than five times longer than Chandrayaan-3's mission, according to ISRO.
Details Of The Mission
The collaborative moon expedition, set to touch down at the precise southern tip of the moon (90-degree latitude), is focused on exploring the moon for water and other valuable resources.
As stated by both agencies, Lupex will also examine the amount and spread of water on the surface and underground of the moon, as well as how water interacts with dry regolith - the layer of loose rock and dust covering the moon's bedrock.
Additionally, the Indo-Japanese mission intends to investigate the permanently shadowed areas of the moon's dark side and gather knowledge about its surface by conducting drilling and in-situ experiments.
The launch for the mission will be done using a Japanese rocket, with ISRO developing the lander system and JAXA developing the rover, as per the WION report quoting Nilesh Desai, director of Space Applications Centre, ISRO. The Lupex rover, with a considerable weight of 350 kg, will be significantly bigger than Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover, which had a weight of 26 kg.
According to Bharadwaj, the ISRO-engineered lander will feature sophisticated scientific tools like a ground-penetrating radar, mid-infrared spectrometer, and Raman spectrometer, as well as the PRATHIMA payload for Moon's Aquatic Scout. Furthermore, the inclusion of Japanese sensors will enhance the range of tools available for thorough research on the moon.
According to a report by Times of India with ISRO chairman S Somanath, the approval for Lupex will be sought from the cabinet shortly. Typically, large joint missions necessitate numerous stages of thorough deliberation and technical preparation prior to advancing to hardware development, integration, and testing.
JAXA reports that the mission is steadily advancing, despite being delayed by COVID-19. Nevertheless, it will take a couple more years before the mission is completely ready for takeoff.
India and Japan have made notable advancements in exploring the moon in the recent past.
“In our previous lunar missions, we have already successfully demonstrated orbiting, landing and rovering. The next step is that we should bring something back from the moon. That is why we are participating in the Lupex mission, which is going to be very useful for future sampling missions and landing of humans on the surface of the moon by 2040,” Anil Bharadwaj, director of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) said according to a report by The Hindu.
Chandrayaan 3
India successfully landed Chandrayaan-3 near the lunar south pole in August 2023, becoming the fourth country to achieve this feat. Following this, Japan accomplished a Moon landing in January 2024 with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), making it the fifth country to do so.
