A Japanese spacecraft blasted off towards Mars on Tuesday for an unprecedented mission to study its enigmatic moons and retrieve samples. This five-year endeavor, a collaborative effort between five global space agencies, aims to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two tiny moons.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spearheaded this ambitious sampling initiative, launching the spacecraft from Tanegashima Island’s main spaceport. The successful separation of the spacecraft from the rocket’s upper stage was confirmed by officials an hour later, eliciting jubilation among the flight controllers.
While NASA has a history of Mars landings and China recently achieved a touchdown in 2021, no previous missions have ventured to Phobos or its companion Deimos, let alone retrieved samples from Mars or its moons. If all goes well, samples containing dust, soil, and rocks from Phobos will return to Earth in 2031.
NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler expressed the excitement surrounding the project, noting Japan’s advantage due to its past asteroid sample returns. The mission, dubbed MMX (Martian Moons Exploration), features a substantial five-ton spacecraft with a planned arrival at Mars by late the following summer. It will rendezvous with Phobos and deploy the French-German rover named Idefix.
Idefix, about the size of a microwave oven, will autonomously land on Phobos, utilizing a unique bouncing mechanism in the moon’s extremely low gravity. The rover’s primary role is to scout for safe landing spots for the mothership, a stationary lander that will collect samples in late 2028 or 2029.
The lander will spend a brief two hours on Phobos, harvesting at least 10 grams of material before departing for Earth in 2030. The mission’s goal is to unravel the mysteries surrounding Mars’s moons’ origins and potentially shed light on planetary formation and the possibility of life.
Russia and Japan have encountered setbacks in previous Mars missions, emphasizing the challenges of exploring the Martian system. By studying Phobos and Deimos, scientists hope to uncover clues about their formation, whether through a Mars collision or asteroid capture.
The mission’s findings will shape future Mars exploration efforts, with NASA, Japan, and China vying for scientific discoveries in the Martian system. Japan’s substantial investment in the mission underscores the importance of this groundbreaking endeavor, with a target return date of 2031 for the collected samples.