Japan Targets One of Mars' Moons in Mission That May Reveal Secrets of the Red Planet

Japan is seeking to unravel one of the solar system’s mysteries through an ambitious space mission aimed at collecting samples from Phobos, Mars’s larger moon, and returning them to Earth for analysis.

According to information from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), an H-3 rocket launched from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying the MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) probe.

The mission aims to determine the origin of Mars’s moons, Phobos and Deimos, amid two scientific hypotheses: the first posits that they formed from debris resulting from an ancient impact with the planet, while the second suggests they are asteroids captured into orbit by Mars’s gravity.

The probe is scheduled to arrive at Mars in August 2027, before executing two landing operations on Phobos to collect approximately 10 grams of its regolith using suction and drilling technologies.

Scientists hope the samples will reveal information about Mars’s history, and perhaps chemical signatures linked to its ancient conditions, though this does not imply conclusive evidence of life.

France and Germany are participating in the mission with a small rover, alongside international collaboration. If the plan proceeds successfully, the samples will return to Earth in 2031, marking the first achievement of its kind in retrieving material from one of Mars’s moons.