LUPEX
- SCI & TECH
News:
Chandrayaan-3 on Moon:
India to shift focus on Chandrayaan-4 with Japan
What's
in the news?
●
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have joined forces to launch
the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (Lupex) also being referred to as
Chandrayaan-4.
Lunar
Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX):
●
India’s
ISRO and Japan’s JAXA are teaming up for the Lunar Polar
Exploration Mission (LUPEX) launching in 2025.
●
ISRO and JAXA are developing the rover and
lander, incorporating instruments from NASA and ESA as well.
Aim:
●
To assess the feasibility of establishing
a lunar base, explore water ice availability, and advance surface exploration
technology.
●
LUPEX’s findings will illuminate the lunar
polar area and aid future human Moon exploration
Proposed
instruments onboard LUPEX:
●
Ahmedabad-based Physical Research
Laboratory (PRL), an autonomous unit of the Department of Space, has proposed
multiple instruments in the LUPEX mission mainly to carry out measurements on
the surface and subsurface near the permanently shadowed polar region of the
Moon.
●
The objective of one of the proposed
instruments — Permittivity and
Thermo-physical investigation for Moon’s Aquatic Scout (PRATHIMA) — is
in-situ detection and quantification of water-ice mixed with lunar surface and
sub-surface soil using a rover/lander platform.
●
The aim of another proposed instrument — Lunar Electrostatic Dust Experiment (LEDEX)
— is to detect the presence of charged dust particles and to confirm the dust
levitation process in the volatile-rich polar region, and to estimate
approximate dust size and flux of charged, levitated dust particles.