Chandrayaan-5 will be a collaboration between JAXA and ISRO called the Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEX) mission

New Delhi: Last month, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw revealed in a Cabinet Briefing that the Chandrayaan-4 mission to the Moon, the Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM) and the development of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) had all been approved, with the Gaganyaan program extended to include the deployment of the first phase of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station.

The monthly report by the Department of Space has now revealed that the Space Commission has also approved the Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX mission.

LUPEX stands for Lunar Polar Exploration. The spacecraft is headed to the highlands around the south pole of the Moon, a promising location to find water ice at or close to the surface, especially in the permanently shadowed craters in the region. The mission is a collaboration between ISRO and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission will be launched by a Japanese Hayabusa rocket. ISRO will be providing the Moon Lander to execute a soft, controlled landing on the surface. Packed on top of ISRO’s Lander will be JAXA’s Rover.

Prospecting For Water On The Moon

ISRO’s lander will be equipped with a ground penetrating radar and an infrared payload to estimate the abundance of water in the region. Water is an important resource for allowing humans to live on the Moon, grow crops in lunar greenhouses, and most importantly, provide rocket fuel which will make it cheaper to launch deep space missions from the lunar surface, which is why all major spacefaring nations are headed to the south pole of the Moon.

Initially, the LUPEX mission was planned to launch before the Chandrayaan-4 mission, and was even called the Chandrayaan-4 mission by the media. Although the timelines and budgets for the LUPEX mission have not been revealed, it now appears that the LUPEX mission will only launch after the Chandrayaan-4 mission in 2027. The LUPEX mission was previously slotted for launch in 2025.

Agencies