Japan Launches Probe to Mars Moon 'Phobos,' Aiming to Return Samples in 2031

Japan has successfully launched a spacecraft on a mission to bring samples from Phobos, a moon of Mars, back to Earth.

AFP-Yonhap News

Japan's Martian moon explorer, MMX, was launched from Tanegashima Island on October 20. MMX has begun a five-year round trip through space. If the mission proceeds as planned, a return capsule carrying surface samples from Phobos will land in Australia in 2031.

According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the mission aims to deepen understanding of Mars and its moons and uncover new clues about how the solar system formed. Phobos is an irregularly shaped moon about 27 km in diameter that orbits Mars in an almost perfectly circular path. The reason for this orbit has not yet been clearly established.

Russia launched a spacecraft in 2011 to bring surface samples from Phobos back to Earth, but the mission failed. Phobos and Deimos, Mars's other moon, have been observed by spacecraft since the 1970s. However, no spacecraft has yet landed on the surface of Phobos, and no mission has successfully collected samples from Mars or its moons and brought them back to Earth. Scientists still do not know exactly what the surface of Phobos is like.

MMX is expected to take about one year to reach Mars and its moons. It will then use several onboard instruments to study Phobos from a distance over a period of several months. MMX is equipped with a NASA spectrometer to analyze Phobos's mineral composition; a laser instrument to measure distances and map the surface terrain; instruments to observe dust and radiation; and various cameras.

MMX is scheduled to approach to within about 40 m of the surface of Phobos in late 2028 or early 2029. From there, it will deploy IDEFIX, a small exploration rover jointly developed by France and Germany, to survey the terrain for about 100 days. The MMX spacecraft will then attempt to land.

JAXA has invested about $350 million in the mission to date. Overseas space agencies, including NASA, have also provided funding, as well as technology and key equipment. NASA's contribution amounts to about $87 million.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.