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ISRO and JAXA reviewed progress on Chandrayaan 5 (LUPEX — Lunar Polar Exploration Mission) at technical meetings in Bengaluru, covering spacecraft communication, payload integration, and launch planning, with the mission still targeted for 2028.
LUPEX will study water and water-ice in the Moon's south polar Permanently Shadowed Regions; ISRO is building the lander while JAXA (with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) develops the rover, to be launched on Japan's H3-24L rocket.
The mission carries 7 scientific instruments contributed by ISRO, JAXA, NASA (neutron spectrometers), and ESA (mass spectrometer), and received Indian government financial sanction on 10 March 2025.
ISRO confirmed Chandrayaan 4 remains India's next lunar mission before Chandrayaan 5, and that Gaganyaan 1 mission hardware is nearing completion.
Areas near the lunar poles where sunlight never reaches, allowing water-ice to remain preserved over billions of years — the primary scientific target of LUPEX's search for exploitable lunar water resources.
Simple Analogy: Deep crater floors near the Moon's poles that stay in permanent shadow, acting like natural cold-storage for ancient ice.
GS Paper III > Space Technology, ISRO Missions
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission — Chandrayaan 5's official name, a joint ISRO-JAXA mission