A spacecraft from Japan headed towards Mars on Tuesday to embark on an unprecedented mission to study its enigmatic moons and retrieve samples. This ambitious five-year endeavor involves a collaboration of five global space agencies aiming to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two diminutive moons.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spearheaded the daring sampling mission, launching the spacecraft from Tanegashima Island’s primary spaceport before dawn. An hour later, officials confirmed the successful separation of the spacecraft from the rocket’s upper stage, prompting jubilation among flight controllers.
While NASA has achieved successful landings on Mars, and China recently landed on the planet in 2021, no previous mission has ventured to Phobos or its companion moon Deimos. Moreover, no one has ever collected samples from Mars or its moons. If this mission proves successful, samples of dust, soil, and rocks from Phobos are expected to reach Earth by 2031.
The mission, known as MMX (Martian Moons Exploration), involves an $812 million endeavor that includes a hefty five-ton spacecraft scheduled to reach Mars by late summer. Upon arrival, the spacecraft will synchronize with Phobos’s orbit before deploying the French-German rover named Idefix. Idefix, no larger than a microwave oven, will autonomously land on Phobos, using a slow movement speed to navigate the moon’s extremely low gravity.
The rover’s primary objective is to assess the terrain for safety as it explores Phobos for 100 days. It will serve as a guide for the mothership, a stationary lander, which will descend to the moon’s surface to collect samples in late 2028 or 2029. The lander will spend two hours drilling and vacuuming up at least 10 grams of material before departing for Earth, with a planned sample delivery in the Australian desert by 2031.
This mission aims to unravel the mysteries surrounding the formation of Mars’s moons and potentially shed light on the existence of life on Mars. Scientists hope to discover whether Phobos and Deimos originated from a collision between Mars and a celestial body or if they were captured asteroids. The findings from this mission are expected to influence future Mars exploration and deepen our understanding of planetary formation and the potential for life beyond Earth.
Japan, China, and NASA are all pursuing sample return missions from Mars, with Japan investing $350 million in this initiative. NASA, the French Space Agency, the German Space Agency, and the European Space Agency are also contributing significant funds to support the mission. This collaborative effort underscores the global interest in unlocking the scientific treasures hidden within the Martian system’s geological remnants.