| Mission type | |
|---|---|
| Operator | |
| Website | www |
| Mission duration | 6 months (planned) [1] |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Launcher and rover: JAXA Lander: ISRO |
| Launch mass | ≈ 6,000 kg (13,000 lb) [2] |
| Payload mass | ≈ 350 kg (770 lb) (lander with rover) [3] |
| Power | watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 2028–29 (planned) [4] |
| Rocket | H3 [5] |
| Launch site | Tanegashima, LA-Y |
| Contractor | Mitsubishi Heavy Industries |
| Moon lander | |
| Spacecraft component | Rover |
| Landing site | South polar region |
| Moon rover | |
The Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX), [6] is a planned joint lunar mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). [7] [8] The mission would send an uncrewed lunar lander and rover to explore the south pole region of the Moon no earlier than 2028. [4] [5] It is envisaged to explore the permanently shadowed regions and to determine the quantity and quality of water on the Moon. [9] JAXA is likely to provide the H3 launch vehicle and the rover,while ISRO would be providing the lander. [10] [11]
LUPEX will follow the planned lunar sample-return mission Chandrayaan-4. [4]
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed an Implementation Arrangement (IA) in December 2017 for pre-phase A,phase A study and completed the feasibility report in March 2018 with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) [12] to explore the polar regions of Moon for water [13] with a joint Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX) that would be launched no earlier than 2028. [4] [14]
ISRO and JAXA held the Joint Mission Definition Review (JMDR) in December 2018. By the end of 2019,JAXA concluded its internal Project Readiness Review. [15]
Since Chandrayaan-2's lander crashed on the Moon during its landing attempt in September 2019,India started to study a new lunar mission named Chandrayaan-3 as a repeat attempt to demonstrate the landing capabilities needed for the LUPEX. [16]
In a joint statement by JAXA and NASA on 24 September 2019,the possibility of NASA joining the LUPEX mission was discussed. [17]
JAXA finished its domestic System Requirement Review (SRR) in early 2021. [18] In April 2023,LUPEX Working Group 1 arrived in India to share information of landing site analysis on promised candidate sites,methods of estimating lander and rover position on moon,information of ground antennas for command and telemetry. [19]
India's Space Commission authorized ISRO to begin work on the LUPEX mission on October 7,2024. The union cabinet has received the report,and approval is anticipated shortly. [20]
The Lunar Polar Exploration mission would demonstrate new surface exploration technologies related to vehicular transport and lunar night survival for sustainable lunar exploration in polar regions. [21] [11] For precision landing it would utilize a feature matching algorithm and navigational equipment derived from JAXA's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission. [2] [22] The lander's payload capacity would be 350 kg (770 lb) at minimum. [3] [1] [23] The rover would carry multiple instruments by JAXA and ISRO including a drill to collect sub-surface samples from 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) depth. [24] [1] Water prospecting and analysis are likely to be mission objectives. [10] [25]
The European Space Agency's Exospheric Mass Spectrometer L-band (EMS-L) of PROSPECT mission was originally planned to fly as a payload on the Russian Luna 27 mission, [26] [27] however EMS-L will now fly on this mission due to continued international collaboration being thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia. [28] [29] Payload proposals from other space agencies might be sought. [7] [22]
The lander has been fully re-engineered by ISRO,which required the development of a new engine. The same engine will be used by ISRO in the future for crewed lunar landing missions. The LUPEX mission will test this engine,developed by Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). The rover now weighs 350 kg,while the lander is heavier (in comparison to the original design). The rover is mounted externally since it is heavy and cannot be transported within the lander like it was in Chandrayaan-3. A sky crane like arrangement has now been designed to deploy it on the Moon's surface. [20]
One of the main challenges ahead is choosing a specific landing location,according to Inoue Hiroka,a researcher with the Lunar Polar Exploration Project Team at JAXA's Space Exploration Center. Landing at the south polar zone of the Moon is the plan,as it is thought to have a high probability of having water. There aren't many level places in this area,though,that are perfect for landing and guaranteeing adequate lighting and communication. The team intends to make its landing site public as soon as they determine the ideal place,since other nations may select the same area. [30]
Some selected Japanese instruments along with the candidate instruments of ISRO and ESA and the invited international collaborators by JAXA. [18] [31]
Following are proposed payloads:
A lander is a spacecraft that descends towards, then comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body other than Earth. In contrast to an impact probe, which makes a hard landing that damages or destroys the probe upon reaching the surface, a lander makes a soft landing after which the probe remains functional.
Chandrayaan-1 was the first Indian lunar probe under the Chandrayaan programme. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in October 2008, and operated until August 2009. The mission included an orbiter and an impactor. India launched the spacecraft using a PSLV-XL rocket on 22 October 2008 at 00:52 UTC from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The mission was a major boost to India's space program, as India researched and developed indigenous technology to explore the Moon. The vehicle was inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008.
A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, including both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959.
Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. The search for the presence of lunar water has attracted considerable attention and motivated several recent lunar missions, largely because of water's usefulness in making long-term lunar habitation feasible.
The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made a deliberate impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of lunar exploration had been observations from Earth. The invention of the optical telescope brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. Galileo Galilei is generally credited as the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes, having made his own telescope in 1609, the mountains and craters on the lunar surface were among his first observations using it.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to space exploration.
A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move over the rough surface of a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies. Some rovers have been designed as land vehicles to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots. Rovers are typically created to land on another planet via a lander-style spacecraft, tasked to collect information about the terrain, and to take crust samples such as dust, soil, rocks, and even liquids. They are essential tools in space exploration.
SELENE-2, or the Selenological and Engineering Explorer 2, is a cancelled Japanese robotic mission to the Moon that would have included an orbiter, a lander and a rover. It was intended as a successor to the 2007 SELENE (Kaguya) lunar orbiter.
Chandrayaan-2 is the second lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after Chandrayaan-1. It consists of a lunar orbiter, the Vikram lunar lander, and the Pragyan rover, all of which were developed in India. The main scientific objective is to map and study the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as the location and abundance of lunar water.
The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India's national space agency, was a lunar probe that was released by ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar remote sensing orbiter which in turn was launched, on 22 October 2008, aboard a modified version of ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. It discovered the presence of water on the Moon.
A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Other rovers have been partially or fully autonomous robots, such as the Soviet Union's Lunokhods, Chinese Yutus, Indian Pragyan, and Japan's LEVs. Five countries have had operating rovers on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan.
The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".
The Chandrayaan programme also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Programme is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the exploration of the Moon. The program incorporates a lunar orbiter, an impactor, a soft lander and a rover spacecraft.
Luna 27 is a planned lunar lander mission by the Roscosmos with collaboration by the European Space Agency (ESA) to send a lander to the South Pole–Aitken basin, an area on the far side of the Moon. Its objective will be to detect and characterise lunar polar volatiles. The mission is a continuation of the Luna-Glob programme.
Resource Prospector is a cancelled mission concept by NASA of a rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. The rover was to attempt to detect and map the location of volatiles such as hydrogen, oxygen and lunar water which could foster more affordable and sustainable human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and other Solar System bodies.
HERACLES is a planned robotic transport system to and from the Moon by Europe (ESA), Japan (JAXA) and Canada (CSA) that will feature a lander called the European Large Logistic Lander, a Lunar Ascent Element, and a rover. The lander can be configured for different operations such as up to 1.5 tons of cargo delivery, sample-returns, or prospecting resources found on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission consists of a Vikram lunar lander and a Pragyan lunar rover was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July 2023. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on 5 August, and India became the first country to touch down near the lunar south pole, at 69°S, the southernmost lunar landing on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST, ISRO became the first agency to land on the south pole of the moon in its first attempt & overall the fourth space agency to successfully land on the Moon, after USSR, NASA and the CNSA.
Chandrayaan-4 is a planned lunar sample return mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the fourth iteration in its Chandrayaan lunar exploration programme. The mission is currently under conceptualization and expected to launch around 2027. It is planned to return up to 3 kg (6.6 lb) of lunar regolith from near Statio Shiv Shakti, the landing site of Chandrayaan-3.
For our next mission — Chandrayaan-3 — which will be accomplished in collaboration with JAXA (Japanese Space Agency), we will invite other countries too to participate with their payloads.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .| Satellites |
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