Japan Launches $350 Million MMX Mission to Bring Back Phobos Samples by 2032
Updated
Updated · NHK WORLD · Oct 18
Japan Launches $350 Million MMX Mission to Bring Back Phobos Samples by 2032
3 articles · Updated · NHK WORLD · Oct 18
Summary
An H3 rocket is set to lift off from Tanegashima at 4:41 a.m. Tuesday Japan time, sending JAXA’s MMX mission toward Mars to attempt the first landing on Phobos.
The 55.3 billion yen mission aims to collect at least 10 grams from 2 centimeters or deeper on the moon’s surface and return the samples to Earth in the fiscal year ending March 2032.
MMX is expected to reach Mars in about one year, then spend three years observing before deploying its exploration module, built with four landing legs for Phobos’s roughly 1/2,000 Earth gravity.
JAXA says the three-module mission should advance techniques for future Martian exploration and help clarify how Phobos formed.
How will Japan's imminent $350 million mission overcome extreme microgravity to snatch pieces of Mars' moon and bring them to Earth?
What secrets about the early solar system and Mars' lost atmosphere are hiding beneath the surface of Phobos waiting to be unlocked?
Martian Moons eXploration (MMX): The 2026 International Sample Return Mission to Phobos
Overview
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, led by JAXA, will launch in October 2026 and travel 480 million kilometers to reach Mars by August 2027. After entering orbit, MMX will study Phobos and Deimos, deploy the IDEFIX rover, and land on Phobos to collect regolith samples using advanced dual samplers. These samples, containing both Phobos material and Martian ejecta, will return to Earth in 2031. Scientists will analyze them to solve the mystery of the moons’ origins and gain new insights into Mars’s history, using a careful curation process at JAXA’s facility in Japan.