Japan has launched an uncrewed spacecraft on a mission to collect the first-ever samples from one of Mars’s moons and bring them back to Earth, in a bid to uncover clues about the origins of the solar system.
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe blasted off aboard an H3 rocket before dawn on Tuesday from the Tanegashima Space Centre in south-western Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Mars in August 2027 before returning to Earth with samples in 2031. Scientists hope the material will help explain how the planet’s two moons formed.
Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two moons, orbits roughly 6,000 kilometres above the planet’s surface, completing three orbits each day. The origins and composition of both moons remain a mystery.
The probe will observe Phobos from orbit before attempting to land on its surface. If successful, it will become the first spacecraft to orbit Phobos and collect samples from a moon other than Earth’s.
A small rover named Idefix is scheduled to land on the surface in early 2029. The 25-kilogram rover will weigh just 15 grams in Phobos’s extremely weak gravity.
The mission’s sample capsule is expected to touch down in South Australia’s Woomera Prohibited Area, a 122,000-square-kilometre military testing and aerospace facility.
Previous attempts to collect samples from Phobos have failed. Russia’s Phobos-Grunt mission was unsuccessfulshortly after launching in November 2011.
Tuesday’s launch also marked a significant milestone for Japan’s flagship H3 rocket, which carried out its first interplanetary mission.
The rocket experienced a major setback during its debut flight in 2023, when its second-stage engine failed to ignite.
Technical problems with the H3 forced Japan to delay the MMX mission from its original 2024 launch date. The rocket has since completed a series of largely successful flights.
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