Context: Even as both the countries continue to battle Covid-19 pandemic, Japan, which will be launching a joint lunar mission with India — Lunar Polar Exploration (LPE) — that hopes to put a lander and rover on Moon’s surface has, for the first time, spelled out details of the project that will see Isro lead the lander development. 
About the Background

• As per details shared by Japanese space agency JAXA, the mission will be launched after 2023 — Isro currently has its human spaceflight programme (Gaganyaan) scheduled for 2022 — and will involve a lander and a rover. 
• JAXA diagrams show that the Japanese would be building the overall landing module and the rover, while Isro would develop the lander system.

About the mission

• The mission will be launched from Japan, and the designated launch vehicle is the H3 rocket, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
• The first thinking of this mission was made public in 2017, during a multi-space agencies’ meeting in Bengaluru and it was then also part of the inter-governmental discussions during PM Modi’s visit to Japan in 2018.
• Now, a pre-project team established earlier this year is working on developing a comprehensive management plan for the collaborative mission; investigate the spacecraft system requirements and the various interface specifications in collaboration with Isro.
• The mission’s aim is to obtain actual data regarding the quantity of water from in-situ observations of areas where water is anticipated to exist, based on the available past observational data. 
• It also seeks to understand the distribution, conditions, form and other parameters of the lunar water resources in the Polar Regions.
• The investigation area and observation points (waypoints) with unique environmental and geological conditions will be selected prior to landing. 
• The lander will land at a location near the investigation area that has long sunlit hours, and deploy the rover.
• During operation, the rover will observe up to 2m underground, allowing the detection of possible water resources in the area. 
• The rover will simultaneously observe the Moon surface.
• Rover will be equipped to conduct observations of the chemical elements present in areas where water may possibly be distributed. 
• If hydrogen is detected, the rover will mine the surface to collect samples. 
• Samples will then be heated to vaporize the volatile substances in order to determine the chemical composition, analyze the quantity of water and conduct isotopic analysis.