Japan to launch historic round-trip mission to Mars moon

Japanese scientists are preparing a mission to Mars’s moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. The unmanned Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) probe, a collaboration with US and European space agencies as well as numerous universities and tech companies, could also help lay the groundwork for eventual human exploration. The flagship H3 rocket carrying the MMX is set to blast off from the Tanegashima Space Centre on Tuesday at 4:41 am (12:41am PKT), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The spacecraft will arrive near Mars one year later, where it will orbit its moon Phobos for up to three years before landing and collecting at least 10 grams (0. 35 ounces) of material from the surface.

A rover dubbed IDEFIX — the French name for the comic hero Asterix’s dog — will first conduct surface observations aimed at ensuring a safe landing. “The sampling (from) Phobos is of course the world’s first, but it means… this is the first round trip to the Martian system,” MMX’s project manager Yasuhiro Kawakatsu told AFP . JAXA said the mission will also explore the possibility of using Phobos as a “natural space station” by establishing the requirements for a round trip to Mars — something “essential for crewed Mars exploration”. It will also observe the Red Planet’s moon Deimos, although it will not land on it, before returning to Earth. Impact or capture JAXA hopes the mission will reveal how Mars and its two moons formed, a key piece of knowledge in working out how the Solar System was born. One theory for the origin of the Martian moons — the “giant impact” hypothesis — is that they formed after a celestial body collided with Mars. The…