Japan launched an ambitious $578 million space mission on Monday named Martian Moons Exploration (MMX), on a five-year journey aimed at landing on Phobos, the largest of Mars' moons, collecting samples and testing their return to planet Earth in an international project seeking to uncover the secrets of the solar system's formation.
The probe lifted off at 3:41 PM Eastern Time from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, carried aboard an H3 heavy-lift space rocket featuring an upgraded configuration comprising four solid rocket boosters and main engines at full power to meet the requirements of this deep and complex space journey. The rocket's upper stage successfully propelled the spacecraft, weighing approximately 4.5 metric units, at a speed exceeding 24,000 miles per hour to escape Earth's gravity toward Mars.
Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), confirmed the success of the launch and the start of the long five-year journey, while agency officials noted that the vehicle established stable communication with ground stations and deployed its solar panels in a highly stable condition.
Why does this news matter?
This mission builds on Japan's successful legacy of Hayabusa missions that previously returned samples from asteroids, making deep space exploration and sample return a distinct specialty for the Japanese space agency, which attracted contributions from NASA and European space agencies in France and Germany.
Flight details and timeline
The probe will spend about three years in the vicinity of Mars after arriving next August, to conduct a series of exploratory encounters with the moons Phobos and Deimos. In late 2028 or early 2029, the mothership will deploy a robotic rover called Idefix, developed in cooperation with France and Germany, to move on the surface of Phobos for up to 100 days.
The culmination of the mission will be in 2029 when the main probe attempts to land up to twice on the surface of Phobos, using landing equipment designed to absorb impact energy in an environment with very weak gravity. The probe will use a drill to collect cylindrical samples, along with a compressed gas blasting device provided by NASA.
International cooperation and future research
The mission plans to recover at least 10 grams of materials and return them to planet Earth for a potential landing in Australia in 2031. In exchange for NASA's technical and scientific contributions, American researchers will receive 15 percent of the retrieved samples.
The mission seeks to determine whether the moon Phobos is an asteroid captured by Mars' gravity or the result of a giant impact in Mars' early history, opening the door to a deeper understanding of the early origin of the solar system and assessing the moon's suitability as a future station for human space exploration.