‘Unique chance’: Japan launches historic mission to collect rocks on Mars’ moon Phobos | Japan

Japan has successfully launched a spacecraft on an unprecedented mission to bring back samples from one of Mars’ moons that scientists hope will shed light on the origins of the solar system and life on Earth.

The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) spacecraft, powered by Japan’s flagship H3 rocket, took off before dawn from the island of Tanegashima in the far southwest of the country, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) announced.

The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars’ orbit in August next year and collect at least 10g of soil and rocks from the surface of Phobos, one of two small potato-shaped moons orbiting the planet. Its return is expected in 2031, Jaxa said.

The pockmarked moon, which has a diameter of 22.5 km, orbits Mars three times a day about 6,000 km above its surface.

The flagship H3 rocket carrying the unmanned probe blasted off into black skies from the Tanegashima space center at 4:41 a.m., in the presence of thousands of people who had woken early to watch a live broadcast.

An hour later, Jaxa scientists declared the launch successful when the spacecraft separated from the rocket’s upper stage, sparking scenes of celebration in the flight control room.

NASA has landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past half-century, while China landed on the Martian surface in 2021, but this is the first time anyone has attempted to land on Phobos or the planet’s smallest moon, Deimos.

“There’s a lot of adrenaline, a lot of excitement and a lot of wonder,” said Tom Statler, a NASA astrophysicist involved in the Japan-led sample collection project.

Five space agencies are collaborating on the five-year mission, which will attempt to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of the two moons.

The mission, costing $578 million, includes a five-ton spacecraft that will synchronize with Phobos’ tight orbit around Mars when it arrives next summer. It will then eject a small Franco-German rover, named Idéfix after the white terrier from the Asterix comics.

If all goes as planned, the four-wheeled rover will bounce (due to gravity on Phobos which is 1/1,000th stronger than Earth) for several minutes on the surface of Mars before stopping. It will spend 100 days surveying the planet’s surface for safe landing and sampling sites before the arrival of the main craft, a four-legged stationary lander that will collect the samples.

The lander will spend just two hours drilling into Phobos and vacuuming up material, before returning to space. Officials said they will observe Deimos during several flybys before leaving Mars’ orbit in November 2030.

“This is a unique opportunity. We are participating in the first sample return mission from the Martian system,” said Markus Grebenstein, head of the rover of the German Space Agency.

Scientists hope these samples will help them establish how Phobos and Deimos formed and even offer clues to the origins of life. MMX’s findings will also help shape future missions to Mars, including crewed expeditions, NASA said.

According to one theory – the “giant impact” hypothesis – the two moons were formed after the collision of a celestial body with Mars. A second proposal, known as the “capture” hypothesis, suggests that the moons are asteroids attracted by Mars’ gravity.

Determining which theory is correct will help reveal “how a habitable environment for life could have arisen on terrestrial planets,” Jaxa said, referring to the four planets closest to the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

The United States and China are in a race to be the first to return rock samples from the surface of Mars. NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been roaming Mars since 2021, has already collected samples, but its return to Earth was halted by the Trump administration after a congressional vote in January this year.

China’s Tianwen-3 spacecraft is scheduled to launch around 2028 and could bring back samples from Mars as early as 2031, potentially before the Japanese lunar mission returns.