An illustration of a Moon base

The Chandrayaan-3 mission laid out some of the groundwork necessary for the Chandrayaan-4 mission, providing the ground teams with the hands-on experience necessary for the ambitious sample return mission. The surprise hop that Chandrayaan-3 executed demonstrated the capabilities of firing rocket engines on the lunar surface and taking off after a landing. The return of the Chandrayaan 3 Propulsion Module (PM) to Earth orbit, also a surprise operation conducted in secret, demonstrated the capabilities of returning a spacecraft to Earth with samples gathered from the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-4 and Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX), a collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are both proposed missions in the study phase, as revealed by responses to an RTI application by SolidBoosters on X. The hands-on experience from the LUPEX mission is expected to be incredibly helpful for the Chandrayaan-4 mission. At the 42nd meeting of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI), the Director of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, Anil Bharadwaj revealed some additional details of the future of the lunar exploration program.

The LUPEX Mission Will Explore The Resources Available Near The Lunar South Pole

The LUPEX mission is headed close to the south pole of the Moon, even closer than Chandrayaan-3. The goal of the mission is to explore the permanently shadowed craters in the highlands around the lunar south pole, where water ice is suspected to exist. The Sun never shines in these deep shadowed regions, with the temperatures continuously low enough for water to exist on or close to the surface. Bhardwaj said, “We want to see what is there in these permanently shadowed regions, what kind of volatiles, because temperatures are so low, pressure is low. Any volatile, including water that is deposited there, it will be like a deep freezing. Therefore, we want to know what is there inside. That is why this LUPEX mission is being planned.”

Lupex is being planned as a three to six month mission for prospecting resources on the Moon. The most important resource is water, which can be used in life support systems for astronauts, as well as manufacturing rocket fuel in propellant plants. A better understanding of the lunar soil, or Regolith, will allow for scientists to develop the additive manufacturing technologies necessary to construct habitats and facilities on the Moon, as well as manufacture tools and spare parts on the lunar surface itself, using locally gathered resources. The rover will make repeated forays into shadowed craters, and return to sunlight to recharge its batteries. The data will be relayed back by the lander.

Japan will be providing the rover element of the mission, while India will be providing the lander, as well as the propulsion module. It is possible, but not confirmed, that the same platform or lander will be used for both the Chandrayaan-4 and LUPEX missions. Bharadwaj said, “Our idea is now, we have shown orbiting, landing, roving. What is next? We should bring something back. That is why we are participating in this mission (LUPEX), because it is going to be useful for our sample return mission.”

What Is The Point of Going To The Moon?

So far, all missions to the lunar surface have been science oriented, but now it is getting commercialised. A commercial mission has not succeeded yet, but another attempt will be made shortly. ISRO is headed to the Moon not just for scientific and geopolitical reasons, but also for economic ones. At the 11th convocation program of the Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said, “We would also like to have a launch of a human spaceflight to Moon. Many people ask me this question, ‘Why do you send a person to Moon, when Americans did it so many years back. Why you want to do it again?’ I think many of you may be knowing that, today, the space economy is being talked about, which is Moon-based economy. I think these narratives you would have read very much, and in US they are working on how to create a Moon based economy, and exploration of space, based on facilities that are created on Moon.”

Role of The Gaganyaan program

The Gaganyaan program is an ambitious initiative to send humans to space on domestic hardware. There may be elements of the mission that are procured from elsewhere, including the final crew module used for the first crewed flight, as well as the spacesuits. ISRO is considering both domestic and overseas sourcing for the crew module, and is looking at the tried and tested Russian spacesuits for at least the first flight. While reviewing the progress on the Gaganyaan program following the successful Moon landing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set new, ambitious goals for ISRO, including landing an Indian on the Moon by 2040.

ISRO responded with an even more ambitious roadmap, that included the step-wise development of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) necessary for lunar missions, a series of landers to the Moon that would demonstrate the capabilities of local resource use, and constructing a fuel station, as well as establishing India’s own orbital platform in the form of the Bharatiya Antariksha Station. There are several gaps in capabilities for meeting these goals, which can be overcome by hastening the Gaganyaan program. The eventual goal is to establish a sustainable lunar economy by 2047, in time for the 100th anniversary of Indian independence.