India's next moon mission with Japan,to explore moon more

TOKYO: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is to run a mission with India to the south pole of the Moon. It is building a rover in collaboration with India. JAXA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) agreed to the project in 2019. India is the fourth country to reach the Moon. Apart from this, it is the first country to reach the South Pole. India will build the lander in this mission, while JAXA will do the launching work and build the rover.

According to JAXA, the mission is planned to be launched before 2025 using Japan's new H3 rocket. The agency meanwhile is in the basic design phase of the rover, which is being tested in sand. This sand is designed to resemble the fine dust regolith of the Moon. This test will determine whether the rover can meet its key objectives on the Moon. This mission is Lunar Polar Exploration (LUPEx).

Natsu Fujioka, who was part of the team that developed this rover, said, 'The LUPEX project will investigate the quantity and quality of water on the Moon. We hope that we will use this data as a basis for establishing human settlements on the Moon in the future. This rover is automatic and will search for water with its science payload. It will also be able to drill the lunar surface to collect samples.

The samples extracted by drilling will be analyzed through the instruments installed in the rover. Other agencies are also sending science payloads in this mission. NASA's neutron spectrometer will search for hydrogen up to 3.3 feet below the surface at the pole. While the European Space Agency's Exospheric Mass Spectrometer will observe the pressure of gases on the surface and their chemical signatures. Several earlier analyzes have shown that water may be present on the moon's surface.

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