A spacecraft from Japan was launched towards Mars on Tuesday for a unique mission to investigate its enigmatic moons and retrieve samples. In a collaborative effort involving five space agencies worldwide, the mission aims to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two small moons.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency initiated the ambitious sampling mission by launching the spacecraft early in the morning from Tanegashima Island’s main spaceport. The successful separation of the spacecraft from the rocket’s upper stage was confirmed an hour later by officials, leading to jubilant celebrations among flight controllers.
While NASA and China have landed spacecraft on Mars, no mission has ever explored Phobos or its companion moon, Deimos, nor collected samples from Mars or its moons. If successful, samples including dust, soil, and rocks from Phobos are expected to reach Earth by 2031.
The mission, named MMX (Martian Moons Exploration), involves a five-ton spacecraft with a price tag of $812 million. Upon reaching Mars in late summer next year, the spacecraft will position itself near Phobos and deploy a French-German rover named Idefix, designed to navigate the moon’s low gravity terrain.
Idefix, resembling a microwave oven in size, will autonomously land on Phobos, utilizing its four wheels to explore the moon’s surface for 100 days. The rover will act as a safety scout to identify suitable locations for the mothership to collect samples in late 2028 or 2029. The mothership, a stationary lander, will spend two hours on Phobos drilling and collecting at least 10 grams of material before departing for Earth.
The mission aims to unravel the origins of Mars’s moons, potentially shedding light on their formation from a collision between Mars and a celestial body, or their capture from the asteroid belt. By studying these samples, scientists hope to gain insights into planetary and moon formation, and potentially the conditions for life.
The mission signifies a significant step in Mars exploration, with Russia and Japan facing setbacks in previous missions, and NASA continuing its quest to uncover the mysteries of the Red Planet. The findings from this mission are expected to influence future Mars expeditions, including human missions. Other countries, including China, are also planning sample return missions from Mars, with Japan and China aiming to retrieve samples by 2031.