Recently, the National Space Commission, India’s apex body on space missions, cleared the fifth lunar mission, the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission.
About LUPEX Mission:
It is a collaborative mission between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Objective: To explore the moon’s southern polar region, investigating the presence of water and other elements, potentially in the form of surface ice.
It aims to showcase innovative surface exploration technologies. The special focus is on vehicular transport and lunar night survival.
It features both a lander and a rover.
JAXA is responsible for developing and operating the rover, and ISRO for developing and operating the lander that will carry the rover.
The rover 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.
The rover will carry not only the instruments of ISRO and JAXA but also those of the US space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
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