Japan's H3 rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 04:41 local time on Tuesday, 20 October, carrying the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed during a live broadcast that MMX had separated from the H3 and begun its journey toward the Martian system. Thousands of people in Japan followed the launch live despite the early hour and posted messages of encouragement online. JAXA leads the project, which brings together France's CNES, NASA, the European Space Agency and Germany's DLR. The probe is designed to become the first to collect samples from one of Mars' two moons.
The cruise to Mars takes less than a year, and the probe is due to reach the Mars system in August 2027. It will then spend about three years around Phobos, a potato-shaped moon that one account puts at about 22 kilometres across, while another gives its largest diameter as nearly 27 kilometres. Before the main probe touches down, the Idefix rover, a French-German design about the size of a microwave oven with four wheels, will survey the surface and help select a landing site. The main probe is set to land on four legs and use a robotic arm to collect at least 10 grams of regolith from at least 2 centimetres below the surface during an operation planned to take three hours. Because Phobos has very weak gravity, the rover is expected to bounce for several minutes before coming to rest after landing.
The return module is scheduled to leave Mars orbit in 2030, and the sample capsule is due to land in Australia in 2031. Scientists want to learn whether Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids or debris from a large impact on Mars. They also hope the samples will show how water and organic compounds reached rocky planets, and whether the dust holds traces of ancient life. The team expects individual grains to be studied one by one, even though the total amount is small, and the best outcome would include some Martian dust in the sample. Professor Sara Russell, the mission's deputy for sample analysis, described the project in these words:
“I think this is an incredibly ambitious and fun mission”
Russell also pointed to a technical challenge: the moon has little gravity of its own, but its proximity to Mars makes it harder to get a rover onto the surface.
Japan enters the work with an advantage, having already brought back samples from two asteroids on earlier missions. NASA's Mars sample return effort, which depended on material collected by the Perseverance rover since autumn 2021, saw its costs rise to US$11 billion, and the expected arrival of samples on Earth slipped to 2040 at the earliest. The US Congress halted funding in January 2026 under US President Donald Trump, and the project has effectively been cancelled. Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said:
“The samples from MMX will bring forth paradigm-shifting science on the Mars system for generations to come, especially as NASA prepares to send the first humans to Mars”
China's Tianwen-3 mission is planned to launch in 2028 and bring back at least 500 grams of Mars surface material, with landing in 2031.
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NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler, who is involved in the project, described a great deal of excitement around the mission. The MMX mission is listed at a cost of US$578 million.
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Japan's H3 rocket lifted the MMX spacecraft from Tanegashima early on 20 October, starting a mission to bring at least 10 grams of material from Phobos back to Earth. The return capsule is scheduled to land in Australia in 2031.
AI text based on reports by Le Monde.fr, Correio da Manha, LBC and other publishers. Changed .