Determining whether Phobos originated from an ancient cosmic impact or an acquired space rock stands as a central scientific goal of the ambitious new probe. “One of the most intriguing questions about Phobos and Deimos is simply why these two little moons are there in the first place,” explained Tom Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA. He added that “In some ways, they resemble asteroids from the outer part of the asteroid belt, so they could be asteroids that were captured by Mars’s gravity. But there are other lines of evidence pointing to these moons being remnants of a giant impact early in Mars’s history.” The endeavor draws heavily on previous achievements with the Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2 probes, which established Japan’s reputation for retrieving pristine celestial material. Statler noted, “By going to the Martian moons, studying them up close, and bringing samples back to Earth, we’ll be able to determine whether Phobos material is more consistent with an asteroid composition or with debris created by a collision involving Mars,”
To initiate this endeavor, an upgraded H3 flagship launch vehicle measuring 207 feet (63 meters) in height bolted into space from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 3:41 pm EDT Monday (4:41 am Japan Standard Time Tuesday). Outfitted with four solid strap-on boosters, maximized main engine thrust, and an expanded payload fairing, the booster carried the 9,900-pound (4.5-metric ton) craft, of which two-thirds constituted fuel. Following a burn that accelerated the payload past 24,000 mph to surpass Earth’s gravitational grasp, the craft detached from the rocket’s upper stage approximately 71 minutes post-liftoff. This $578 million initiative, designated as the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) endeavor, aims to execute a five-year voyage to survey the Martian system and deliver foreign dirt back to terrestrial laboratories.
Official confirmation of the flight’s initial success came quickly from Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), who stated, “A long journey of five years has just started,” Shortly following the separation, mission lead Yasuhiro Kawakatsu verified that the hardware deployed solar arrays, communicated with controllers, and maintained a stable posture, summarizing, “So far, so good.” Highlighting the international significance of the endeavor, Japanese Science Minister Yoshihiro Seki remarked, “The MMX [mission] we launched today is a challenging mission aiming for the world’s first sample return from the Martian moons,” adding, “We hope that the results obtained through this mission will contribute to the development of our nation’s space science and exploration technology.” Kawakatsu pointed out that Japan’s past accomplishments created strong global interest, stating, “We have a proven track record of success in these areas,” and noting, “Because of this, I believe they are participating with the understanding that if they want to conduct celestial body sample returns, joining a mission led by Japan is more certain to succeed than the US or Europe launching their own missions.”
After completing a ten-month transit to reach Mars next August, the spacecraft will spend roughly three years operating in the proximity of the red planet and its two moons. Because the gravitational pull of Mars eclipses that of Phobos—a lumpy body spanning an average of 14 miles (22 kilometers) across, roughly equal in surface area to Houston—the probe will navigate a specialized quasi-satellite trajectory. The hardware will discard its empty main thruster stage before maneuvering its four-legged exploration vehicle close to the potato-shaped moon, which circles Mars forty times closer than our Moon orbits Earth. Between late 2028 and early 2029, the primary vessel will release Idefix, a four-wheeled French and German robotic rover roughly the dimensions of a large shoebox, designed to navigate the moon’s minimal gravity and rough surface for up to 100 days.
During the latter part of 2029, the main craft will execute up to two landings on Phobos, utilizing specialized legs engineered to absorb shock and prevent bouncing off the low-gravity surface. Operating on the ground for several hours, the lander will gather target material using both an articulated mechanical arm fitted with a coring drill and a nitrogen gas pneumatic sampling tool provided by NASA. Researchers anticipate obtaining at least 10 grams, or one-third of an ounce, of regolith before the craft jettisons its landing chassis and ignites its thrusters toward Earth in 2030. Touchdown of the sample capsule is scheduled for 2031 in an isolated region of South Australia, with American scientists receiving a 15 percent share of the recovered specimens in exchange for contributing the pneumatic collector and a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer instrument.
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