Chandrayaan-5 (LUPEX) | 16 May 2025

Source: IE 

Following the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 and the proposed lunar sample return by ISRO’s Chandrayaan-4 mission, India and Japan have jointly planned the upcoming Chandrayaan-5 (LUPEX) mission to study the Moon’s surface and the subsurface for locating lunar water and ice deposits. 

• Chandrayaan-5 also known as LUPEX (Lunar Polar Exploration) is a joint lunar mission by ISRO (India) and JAXA (Japan’s space agency), scheduled for 2027-28 launch on Japan's H3 rocket. 
  • Rover will be developed by JAXA and lander by ISRO. 
  • It will carry 7 scientific instruments, including a mass spectrometer by ESA and neutron spectrometers by NASA.  
• Mission Objectives: 
  • Mapping lunar water presence. 
  • Drilling lunar regolith to analyze water content, quality, and composition. 
  • Performing in-situ scientific observations using spectrometers and sensors. 
• It is a proposed 100 days (3.5 months) with possible extension to a year and an attempt to explore the Moon’s far side. 
• Chandrayaan-4 will be a lunar return sample mission, scheduled before Chandrayaan-5. 
• Chandrayaan-3 made India the first country to soft-land on the Moon's south pole in 2023.