Chandrayaan-5 / LUPEX: The India–Japan lunar mission, explained
Chandrayaan-4 returns samples from the Moon's south pole. Chandrayaan-5, the LUPEX mission with Japan, studies water at the same pole. The exam confuses the two deliberately, so the distinction comes first.
The two missions
| Mission | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Chandrayaan-4 | Lunar sample return (approved 2024) |
| Chandrayaan-5 / LUPEX | Joint polar exploration with JAXA |
LUPEX: the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission
LUPEX is an ISRO–JAXA partnership targeting the lunar south pole, the region where Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander made India the first country to soft-land, on 23 August 2023. The rover will search for water ice in the permanently shadowed regions.
The division of work. ISRO provides the lander. JAXA provides the rover and the launch vehicle.
Why water ice matters. It is the raw material for oxygen, water and fuel in future lunar habitation.
Source: ISRO: LUPEX
The Chandrayaan lineage
Chandrayaan-1 (2008). Made the mission-defining discovery of water and hydroxyl molecules on the lunar surface, using the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument carried as a NASA payload.
Chandrayaan-2 (2019). Its orbiter continues to work even though the lander was lost in the final descent.
Chandrayaan-3 (2023). Achieved the soft landing near 70°S. The touchdown site was named Shiv Shakti point, and 23 August is now celebrated as National Space Day.
The exam's payload logic
Space questions increasingly test why missions go where they go.
South-pole landings. Target the permanently shadowed craters because ice survives only there.
Sample return. Closes the loop between remote sensing and laboratory analysis.
International payloads. Instruments like M3 on Chandrayaan-1 demonstrate instrument-sharing.
LUPEX combines all three threads.
Prelims traps
| Statement | True or False |
|---|---|
| "ISRO provides the lander; JAXA provides the rover" | False. ISRO provides the lander, JAXA the rover |
| "Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole" | True |
| "Chandrayaan-4 is a sample-return mission" | True |
| "National Space Day falls on 23 August" | True |
Part of: Science and Technology, July 2024 to June 2026
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Source: Indian Space Research Organisation; JAXA.