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, lifted off before dawn from Tanegashima island in the country’s southwestern corner, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said. It will orbit Mars in August next year and will collect at least 10g of soil and rock from the surface of Phobos, one of two small potato-shaped moons orbiting the planet. It is scheduled to return in 2031, Jaxa said. The pitted moon, which has a diameter of 22.5 kilometers (14 miles), orbits Mars three times a day about 6,000 kilometers above its surface. The flagship H3 rocket carrying the unmanned probe blasted off into a black sky from the Tanegashima Space Center at 4:41 a.m., witnessed by thousands of people who had gotten up early to follow a live broadcast. An hour later, Jaxa scientists declared the launch a success 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 is a lot of adrenaline, a lot of excitement and a lot of surprise,” NASA said. Astrophysicist Tom Statler, who is participating in the Japanese-led project to collect samples. Five space agencies are collaborating on the five-year mission, which will attempt to land a robotic search engine and a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of the two moons. The $578 million mission includes a five-ton spacecraft that will lock into Phobos’ tight orbit around Mars when it arrives next summer. It will then eject a small Franco-German rover, named Idefix after the white terrier from the Asterix comics. If all goes as planned, the four-wheeled vehicle will bounce (because gravity on Phobos is 1/1,000 as strong as Earth’s) for several minutes on the surface of Mars before stopping. It will spend 100 days surveying the planet’s surface to find safe landing and sampling sites before the arrival of the lead spacecraft, a four-legged stationary lander that will collect the samples. The lander will spend just two hours on Phobos drilling and vacuuming up material, before launching back into space. Officials said it would observe Deimos during several flybys before leaving Mars orbit in November 2030. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We are part of the first sample return mission of the Martian system,” said German Space Agency rover head Markus Grebenstein. Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons, is seen in this undated image taken by NASA’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars. Reconnaissance orbiter. Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Reuters Scientists hope the samples will help them establish how Phobos and Deimos formed and even offer clues to the origins of life. The MMX findings will also help shape future missions to Mars, including manned expeditions, NASA said. According to one theory, the “giant impact” hypothesis, the two moons formed after a celestial body collided with Mars. A second proposal, known as the “capture” hypothesis, suggests that the moons are asteroids attracted by the gravity of Mars. Determining which theory is correct will help reveal “how a habitable environment for life could have emerged 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 around Mars since 2021, has already collected samples, but its return to Earth was halted by the Trump administration after a congressional vote in January of this year. The Chinese Tianwen-3 spacecraft is scheduled to launch around 2028 and could bring back samples from Mars as early as 2031, potentially before the return of the Japanese lunar mission.
