Context: Indian Government has approved the Chandrayaan 5 mission which will be jointly conducted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Chandrayaan Mission series.
Chandrayaan 5 Mission
- Chandrayaan-5 or LUPEX (Lunar Polar Exploration) aims at deeper exploration of the Moon’s surface to study water and water-ice both on the lunar surface and the subsurface.
- The LUPEX mission will be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan by a Japanese rocket (H3 Launch Vehicle).
- H3 is a three-stage launch vehicle powered by solid-fuels and cryogenic fuels (Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen). It is 63 meters tall and weighs 574 tons.
- The mission is expected at a little over 100 days after the lunar landing, or for a maximum of one year.
- Tentative launch: 2027-28
Joint project between ISRO and JAXA:
ISRO will build the lunar lander, while Japan will build the rover.
- The LUPEX craft would weigh 6,500 kg approximately, and this includes a 350 kg 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 collected samples will be analysed in detail with observation equipment mounted on the rover.
Scientific payloads that LUPEX will be carrying:
- LUPEX will be carrying a total of 10 scientific payloads. These include five payloads from JAXA, three payloads from ISRO, and one payload each from NASA and the European Space Agency.
- The payloads are: Resource Investigating Water Analyzer (REIWA), Lunar Thermogravimetric Analyzer (LTGA), Triple-reflection Reflectron (TRITON), Aquatic Detector using Optical Resonance (ADORE), International Symposium of Antennas and Propagation (ISAP), Advanced Lunar Imaging Spectrometer (ALIS), Neutron Spectrometer, Ground Penetrating Radar, Exospheric Mass Spectrometer for LUPEX (EMS-L), Mid-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (MIR).
Lunar Missions by ISRO:
Chandrayaan-1:
- India's first moon mission launched in 2008.
- Launch vehicle: Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
- The spacecraft orbited around the Moon at a height of 100 km. It mapped the Moon in infrared, visible, and X-ray light from lunar orbit, and used reflected radiation to prospect for various elements, minerals, and ice.
- It released an impactor (Moon Impact Probe- MIP) that studied the thin lunar atmosphere before crashing on the Moon’s surface.
- It gave definitive proof of the presence of water ice in the Moon’s atmosphere and surface.
Chandrayaan-2:
- Second moon mission launched in 2019.
- Launch vehicle: LVM-3
- The spacecraft consisted of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover.
- The orbiter circled the Moon in a polar orbit at a height of 100 km, and has a planned mission lifetime of seven and a half years.
- Vikram lander planned to demonstrate soft landing on the moon, however, it crashed due to a software error. Despite it, 90-95% of the mission objectives have been accomplished.
- It has enriched understanding of the Moon's evolution and mapped minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions.
Chandrayaan-3:
- Third moon mission launched in 2023.
- Launch vehicle: LVM3
- The spacecraft consisted of Vikram lander and Pragyan rover. The Vikram lander touched down on the Moon on August 23, 2023.
- It made one of the closest approaches to the moon's South Pole. The landing site is located about 600 kilometers from the South Pole of the Moon, on the near side of the Moon.
- The rover operated for one lunar day (approximately 14 Earth days). It aimed to collect lunar samples, do in-situ experiments and send data to Vikram lander, to transmit it back to Earth.
- India became the fourth country to land spacecraft on the Moon after the US, Russia, and China.
- The Virtual Launch Control Centre at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre played a vital role in continuous real-time monitoring of the launch activities from SHAR.
- The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved the name “Statio Shiv Shakti” for the landing site of Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander.
4. Chandrayaan-4:
- Planned lunar sample return mission expected to launch around 2027.
- Aim: To collect samples from the moon's surface and bring them back to the Earth.
- Landing site: Planned near Statio Shiv Shakti (landing site of Chandrayaan-3), near south pole region.
- Design: The spacecraft would comprise five modules onboard two separate LVM-3, and will be docked in the Earth orbit. In the final lunar orbit, the modules will undock. The samples will be collected and brought back to Earth.
Why is there a lot of interest in water on the moon ?
- Water can be electrolysed (split) to produce rocket fuel (oxygen and hydrogen). If there is enough water, it will be an important resource for future crewed space activities because it will eliminate the need to transport large quantities of fuel from the earth.
LUPEX will land in an area where past remote sensing observations indicate the high possibility of the existence of water (ice). LUPEX rover will directly measure the water content by in-situ observation.
The Chandrayaan-5 / LUPEX mission will be one of the major short-term milestones in India’s lunar exploration odyssey, which envisions Indian Gaganyatris (astronauts) landing on the Moon by year 2040.