Phobos sample-return: Japan’s MMX to bring Martian moon dust to Earth
TL;DR
Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) aims to land a small rover on Phobos, collect more than 10 grams of material with two sampling systems, and return a capsule to Australia by 2031—the first deliberate Martian-system sample brought to Earth. The mission will include a 25‑kg IDEFIX rover, a brief daytime Phobos touchdown, and a return capsule for lab analysis in South Australia, with 11 instruments mapping landing sites and characterizing the material to probe Phobos’s origin and Mars’s history.
- Japan is sending a spacecraft to land on Phobos, where gravity is about 1,700 times weaker than Earth’s. MMX will collect more than 10 grams of material and return it to Australia in 2031 — the first sample ever deliberately brought back to Earth from the Marti Space Daily
- JAXA Unveils Martian Moon Probe, Aiming to Be 1st to Take Home Samples The Japan News
- Japanese probe prepares to launch toward Phobos Universe Space Tech
- Japan will send a probe to a moon of Mars to investigate the origins of the Solar System Українські Національні Новини (УНН)
- JAXA Unveils Spacecraft for World's First Mission to Bring Back Sand from a Martian Moon finance.biggo.com
Want the full story? Read the original reporting
Read on Space Daily