Japan is preparing to launch an unmanned probe that will collect material from the Martian moon Phobos and carry it back to Earth, CNA reported on October 18. Scientists hope the samples will help explain how the Solar System formed and how life arose on Earth.
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission aims to be the first return journey to the Martian system. The US and China have been competing to bring back rock from the surface of Mars itself. NASA's sample return effort was effectively cancelled by the administration of President Donald Trump after a vote in the US Congress in January. China plans to launch its Tianwen-3 spacecraft around 2028 and hopes to return Martian samples as early as 2031, which could come before MMX gets back.
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), an H3 rocket carrying the probe lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 4.41am on October 20.
"Being able to be involved in such a grand mission is incredibly exciting," Makoto Arita, project manager of JAXA's H3 rocket team, told reporters.
The spacecraft is due to reach the vicinity of Mars around August 2027. It will orbit Phobos and then land, gathering at least 10g of surface material over three years in the Martian sphere. A rover named IDEFIX, the French name for the dog in the Asterix comics, will first survey the terrain to help secure a safe touchdown.
"The sampling (from) Phobos is of course the world's first, but it means ... this is the first round trip to the Martian system," Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, the MMX project manager, told AFP.
The probe will also observe Deimos, the second Martian moon, without landing on it. JAXA said the mission would test whether Phobos could serve as a "natural space station" by setting out what a return trip to Mars requires, a step it described as "essential for crewed Mars exploration".
Scientists are divided over whether the two moons formed after a celestial body struck Mars or are asteroids pulled in by the planet's gravity. JAXA said settling the question would show how conditions suitable for life may have emerged on Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
French astrophysicist Patrick Michel, who works on IDEFIX, told AFP the mission could clarify how water, volatiles and organic compounds reached the inner rocky planets from the outer Solar System.
France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and about 20 universities and technology companies are partners in the project.
Phobos orbits roughly 6,000km above the Martian surface. Kawakatsu told reporters the probe must fly very close to Mars and then break free of its strong gravity.