Japan’s space agency JAXA is preparing to launch its Martian Moons eXploration mission, known as MMX, from the Tanegashima Space Center on 20 October Japan time, NASA has announced. The spacecraft is due to reach Mars in August 2027, survey its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, and collect material from the surface of Phobos.
If all goes to plan, the sample will be gathered no earlier than December 2028 and brought back to Earth in 2031. NASA is contributing MEGANE, an instrument built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to map Phobos’s chemistry using gamma rays and neutrons, along with a gas-powered sampler from Honeybee Robotics and tracking support from its Deep Space Network. About 15% of the returned material will be kept in Houston for researchers.
Scientists still debate whether the moons are captured asteroids or debris from a giant impact on Mars, and the sample could settle the question. NASA’s Nicky Fox called the mission “paradigm-shifting science”.
Source: NASA