Japan's MMX mission launched on 19 October, aiming to land on Mars's moon Phobos and return samples to Earth by 2031, which could help resolve the moons' origin.
01Summary
- 01The MMX mission launched from Tanegashima Space Center on an H3 rocket at 3:41 p.m. EDT (1941 GMT) on 19 October.
- 02The spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2027 and spend about three years in the Martian system.
- 03MMX will deploy the IDEFIX rover, a joint French-German project, to Phobos's surface in late 2028 or early 2029.
- 04Two separate touchdowns on Phobos will collect samples for a return capsule scheduled to land in Australia in 2031.
- 05NASA contributed $87 million to the mission and will receive at least 15% of the returned Phobos sample.
02Why it matters
Samples from Phobos could reveal whether Mars's moons formed from a planetary impact or were captured asteroids, offering clues about the early solar system and Mars's geological history.
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