Japan Launches Spacecraft to Mysterious Moons of Mars in a Bold Mission to Bring Home Soil Samples
The $578 million mission will collect at least 10 grams of Phobos material and return it to Earth in 2031, JAXA said.
- On Tuesday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched its flagship H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center carrying the Martian Moons Exploration probe, starting a five-year mission to retrieve samples from Phobos.
- The $US578 million, 5-ton spacecraft aims to retrieve material that could reveal the solar system's origins, an unprecedented challenge as no agency has ever successfully landed on or fetched samples from the Martian moons.
- JAXA will deploy a French-German rover named Idefix to the 22-kilometer-wide Phobos. The rover serves as a "scout for safety," French Space Agency official Julien Baroukh said, prowling the surface for 100 days.
- Flight controllers plan to land the four-legged mothership on Phobos in late 2028 or 2029 to drill and vacuum up at least 10 grams of material before launching back to Earth.
- After studying the twin moon Deimos, the probe will return to the Australian desert in 2031. NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler said, "There's a lot of adrenaline," underscoring the mission's complexity and scientific stakes.
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The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has launched the historic MMX mission (Martian Moons eXploration) with the aim of thoroughly studying the environment of Mars and landing at Fobos, the largest moon on the red planet. During this ambitious international project, the unmanned probe will collect key data on the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos and bring to Earth the first samples of the surface of Phobos. Experts are confident that t…
Radio France Internationale
rtl.luJapan launches rocket for potential world first Mars moon mission
The flagship H3 rocket carrying the unmanned Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe blasted off into a pitch black sky from the Tanegashima Space Center at 4:41 am (1941 GMT Monday), according to a livestream broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Despite the early hour in Japan, thousands of people tuned into the live stream, posting messages of encouragement. If successful, the spacecraft will arrive near Mars around August…
Japan launches spacecraft to mysterious moons of Mars in a bold mission to bring home soil samples – WTOP News
A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on an unprecedented quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples. Five of the world’s space agencies joined forces for the five-year mission that will attempt to land a robotic prospector plus a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of Mars’ two pint-sized moons....
Japan's space agency, JAXA, has launched the MMX mission to explore Mars' moon, Phobos. Launched aboard the H3 rocket, the spacecraft will arrive near Mars in August 2027. The mission's goal is to collect 10 grams of soil and rock samples from Phobos' surface.
Illustration shows the MMX probe and the planned route from one to Mars and back to Earth. JAXA Japanese scientists launched on Tuesday (20) a rocket that transports an unmanned probe with the mission of collecting samples from one of the two Mars moons. If successful, the operation may be the first in the world to bring material from one of these moons to Earth. The H3 rocket took off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 4:41 a.m. at local time…
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