A spacecraft from Japan was launched toward Mars on Tuesday for a groundbreaking mission to study its enigmatic moons and bring back samples. This mission, involving five world space agencies, aims to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two moons.
The spacecraft was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency from Tanegashima Island. The successful separation of the spacecraft from the rocket’s upper stage was met with cheers and celebrations by flight controllers. Unlike previous missions that landed on Mars, this mission is the first to explore Phobos and its companion Deimos and attempt to retrieve samples.
If successful, samples including dust, soil, and rocks from Phobos will be brought back to Earth in 2031. The mission, named MMX (Martian Moons Exploration), has a budget of $812 million and involves a five-ton spacecraft set to reach Mars by late summer. The French-German rover, named Idefix, will be deployed to Phobos to explore its surface.
Idefix, a four-wheeled rover, will navigate Phobos for 100 days, serving as a safety scout before the mothership lands to collect samples. The mothership will spend two hours drilling and vacuuming at least 10 grams of material from Phobos before departing to study Deimos and return to Earth by 2031.
Scientists hope to uncover the origins of Mars’s moons through this mission, shedding light on their formation and potential links to Mars’s history. The findings from this mission are expected to contribute valuable insights to future Mars exploration endeavors. Japan, China, and NASA are all vying to retrieve samples from Mars, with Japan leading the current mission and aiming for a 2031 sample return. The collaborative effort involves significant financial investments from various space agencies.
