Chandrayaan-5 (LUPEX) Mission (Space & Defence Sectors)
Why In News:
ISRO and Japan's JAXA held technical review meetings at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru, examining power, communication, and lander-rover interface systems for the upcoming Chandrayaan-5 mission.
Source: The Indian Express, Page 8, 31 Jul 2026 – 'ISRO & Japanese scientists review mission Chandrayaan 5 preparation'
What is Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX?
Full form: Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX), a joint ISRO-JAXA lunar mission, also called Chandrayaan-5.
Division of work: ISRO will provide the lander (about 6,000 kg); JAXA will provide the rover (about 350 kg), significantly larger than the Pragyan rover of Chandrayaan-3.
Target region: The Moon's south polar permanently shadowed regions, to search for and quantify water ice.
Launch vehicle and timeline: Planned to launch on Japan's H3 rocket, targeted for 2027–28.
International payloads: Instruments aboard the rover include contributions from NASA and ESA in addition to ISRO and JAXA.
Other Important Space Missions
Chandrayaan-3 (2023): First soft landing near the Moon's south pole, using the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover.
Chandrayaan-4: An approved lunar sample-return mission that serves as a technological precursor to LUPEX.
Gaganyaan: Gaganyaan is India’s flagship indigenous human spaceflight programme, formally announced in 2018.
Mission Objective: It aims to send a crew of three astronauts to a 400 km Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for a three-day mission and ensure their safe return via splashdown in Indian sea waters.
Significance: The mission will make India the fourth country, after the United States, Russia, and China, to independently undertake a human spaceflight mission.
Launch Vehicle: The Human-rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (HLVM3) will place the Orbital Module (OM) into the designated orbit.
Indian Space Station: Planned for 2035, part of India's long-term space roadmap alongside a crewed Moon landing target of 2040.