Bengaluru: ISRO on Thursday congratulated the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on the successful launch of Japan’s lander mission to the Moon. “Best wishes for another successful lunar endeavour by the global space community,” the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency also said on ‘X’. 


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Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Thursday launched a rocket carrying an X-ray telescope that will explore the origins of the universe as well as the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).


In fact, after the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO’s next likely Moon mission is in partnership with JAXA, a venture that’s gathering steam. Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX) is a collaborative venture between JAXA and the Indian space agency. JAXA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) are developing the rover and lander, respectively.


The rover will carry not only the instruments of ISRO and JAXA but also those of the US space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Vice-Chair of Japan’s Cabinet Committee on National Space Policy and Director General, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Saku Tsuneta, visited the ISRO Headquarters here last month and had a meeting with the space agency’s Chairman S Somanath, and discussed the progress of the LUPEX mission.


“Development of a smaller lander for the LUPEX mission was discussed, among other things,” an ISRO official said. According to JAXA, the LUPEX mission is aimed at exploring lunar polar region suitability for establishing a lunar base for sustainable activities; obtaining knowledge regarding availability of lunar water-ice resources, and demonstrating lunar and planetary surface exploration technologies such as vehicular transport and overnight survival.


Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory, an autonomous unit of the Department of Space, has proposed multiple instruments in the LUPEX mission mainly to carry out measurements at 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 — the Lunar Electrostatic Dust Experiment (LEDEX) is to detect the presence of charged dust particles confirm the dust levitation process in volatile-rich polar regions, and estimate the approximate dust size and flux of charged levitated dust particles. According to an ISRO official, the LUPEX mission is slated to be launched in the year 2025.