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(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) THE LUNAR POLAR EXPLORATION MISSION

(NOVEMBER-2024)

The National Space Commission, India’s apex body on space missions, cleared the fifth lunar mission, the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission or Lupex.

A collaborative effort between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Lupex is part of India’s larger lunar

roadmap that ultimately envisions sending an astronaut to the Moon and bringing them safely back.
The mission could live for up to 100 days on the lunar surface, a stay that would be over five times the duration of Chandrayaan-3’s mission life.

Aim: The LUPEX project is an initiative aimed at exploring the Moon for water and other resources and gaining expertise in exploring the surface of the Moon.
Collaboration: The LUPEX project is an international cooperative project, with JAXA in charge of the lunar rover and ISRO responsible for the lander that will carry the rover; observation instruments from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will also be mounted on the rover.

The LUPEX project will investigate the quantity and quality of water on the Moon.
Rover: The rover being developed by JAXA will drive on its own to search for areas where water is likely to be present and sample the soil by digging into the ground with a drill. The plan is to acquire data by analyzing the collected samples in detail with observation equipment mounted on the rover.

The rover will be equipped with instruments for measuring the water content of regolith (lunar sand), drilling and sampling, as well as with other world-first and world-leading technologies for the driving system and batteries.
ISRO has advanced technological capabilities that it has applied to operating lunar orbiters and developing lunar landers and rovers, and the LUPEX project will have to build a larger lunar rover than ISRO has developed to date.
The LUPEX project is currently scheduled for launch in 2025.