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| Attribute | LUPEX (ISRO lander + JAXA rover) Lunar Polar Exploration Mission Trust: Agency-primary Last verified Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | CNSA | JAXA + ISRO | ispace |
| Prime contractor | China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) | JAXA + ISRO | Draper |
| Status | Landed | In development | In development |
| Customer | CNSA | JAXAISRO | NASA-CLPS |
| Launch date | 2024-05-03 | 2028 (NET) | 2027 (NET) |
| Landing date | 2024-06-01 | — | — |
| Landing site | Apollo crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin (lunar far side) | Lunar south pole (permanently shadowed crater margin) | Schrödinger Basin, lunar far side near south pole |
| Payload | 1,935.3 g of lunar far-side regolith returned to Earth (2024-06-25) | ~350 kg rover with drilling to 1.5 m + ISRO lander (2026-05-28) | 300 kg surface payload capacity (2026-05-28) |
| Contract value | — | — | $73M (2022-07-21) |
| Outcome | First-ever sample return from the lunar far side and the South Pole-Aitken Basin. Used the Queqiao-2 relay satellite for far-side comms. Samples revealed unexpectedly cohesive grain behavior and excavated material from the Moon's mantle. | Joint ISRO-JAXA water-ice prospecting mission, designated Chandrayaan-5 by India. India's cabinet approved Phase A on 2025-03-10. Launches on JAXA's H3. Carries American and European instruments alongside Indian and Japanese ones. | Pivoted from Series-2 to APEX 1.0 architecture for higher payload capacity and far-side comms via two relay satellites. Far-side polar landing supports NASA's Endurance-A sample-return precursor science. |
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