NASA’s Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma Ray and Neutrons (MEGANE) instrument, developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in collaboration with colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, will play a major role in the MMX mission, which aims to characterize and determine the origin of Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos and deliver a sample from Phobos to Earth.
11.12.2023
Japan may delay its Mars moon sampling mission MMX due to rocket problems
JAXA needs to get its H3 rocket flying successfully early next year
Japan’s ambitious mission to explore the two mini moons of Mars could be facing a lengthy delay.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Martian Moons eXploration(MMX) is scheduled to launch in September 2024, taking advantage of a once-every-26-months launch window to the Red Planet.
Arriving in Mars orbit in August 2025, coinciding with the World Expo in Osaka, MMX would attempt landings on Phobos to collect a minimum 0.35 oz (10 grams) of samples. It would then make flybys of the smaller moon Deimos before a module containing the samples is sent back towards Earth, arriving in 2029.
However the agency’s new H3 rocket, which will launch MMX, failed on its debut flight in March. JAXA stated last month that it is aiming to attempt a second launch of the flagship H3 rocket by the end of March next year, NHK reported.
The outcome of that mission—which will benefit from lessons learned and measures taken after the failure—will likely determine if MMX can launch on schedule.
Further issues would see MMX delayed to late 2026. However rescheduling the mission may prove challenging, as a number of high priority launches will complicate matters, Kyodo News reports.
It is unknown if JAXA would consider using another launcher, such as the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, to launch MMX.
When it does launch, MMX aims to determine if Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids or fragments that coalesced after a giant impact with Mars. It will also gain new insights into the history of Mars.
The mission will also carry a small rover for exploring Phobos, developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French Center National Space Research (CNES).
Quelle: SC
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Update: 6.01.2024
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Japan delays MMX Mars moon sample-return mission to 2026
Issues with the country's new H3 rocket mean that the ambitious mission can't fly this year.
Japan's Martian Moons Exploration probe lands on Phobos, the largest moon of Mars, with the Red Planet in the background in an artist rendering. (Image credit: JAXA)
Japan has postponed the launch of a mission seeking to bring samples of a Martian moon to Earth until 2026.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission was due to launch in September of this year on the country's new H3 rocket.
However, the first flight of the flagship H3 failed last March. Despite JAXA recently announcing it is now targeting mid-February for a second H3 launch attempt, the agency decided that proving the reliability of the new launcher was paramount before attempting the ambitious interplanetary MMX mission.
A September 2024 launch would have seen MMX reach the Red Planet in August 2025 and return to Earth with around 0.35 oz (10 grams) of samples of the Mars moon Phobos in 2029.
But the mission now must wait until the next Mars launch window opens in late 2026; its samples are slated to reach Earth in 2031. (Earth and Mars align properly for interplanetary missions just once every 26 months.)
A key goal of MMX is to determine if Phobos and its fellow moon Deimos are captured asteroids or the coalescence of fragments blown into orbit after a giant impact struck Mars. It also promises to bring new understandings regarding the history of the Red Planet and insights into planetary formation in the wider solar system.
The MMX mission will include flybys of Deimos, which is smaller and more distantly orbiting than Phobos. The spacecraft will also carry a small rover for exploring Phobos, developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French Center National Space Research (CNES).
Quelle: SC
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Update: 12.01.2024
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Japanese Mars mission launch delayed to 2026
JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission will now launch in 2026, two years later than previously planned. Credit: JAXA
NEW ORLEANS — The launch of a Japanese mission to collect samples from the Martian moon Phobos and return them to Earth, previously scheduled for later this year, has slipped to 2026.
The Japanese space agency JAXA confirmed the two-year delay in the launch of the Martian Moons eXploration, or MMX, mission, blaming it in part on the H3 rocket that will launch the spacecraft.
“Owing to evaluate the demonstration results of the second H3 rocket test vehicle and considering the importance to ensure sufficient time for preliminary verification of MMX on the ground, the launch schedule for Japanese rockets has been reviewed,” the agency said in a Jan. 10 statement to SpaceNews.
The H3 made its inaugural launch in March 2023 but failed to reach orbit when its second stage engine did not ignite, likely because of an electrical issue. JAXA announced Dec. 27 it had scheduled the second H3 launch for as soon as Feb. 14, carrying a test payload and two smallsats.
MMX was scheduled to launch in September 2024. It would have entered orbit around Mars in August 2025 and remained there for three years before heading back to Earth, returning in September 2029.
The decision to delay MMX to 2026, the next available window for a Mars mission, was approved in December by the Japanese government’s Space Development Strategy Headquarters as part of a revision of its Schedule for the Basic Plan on Space Policy. The mission announced the change on social media at the time, but with no explanation for the delay.
MMX is a spacecraft weighing about 4,000 kilograms carrying a suite of instruments to study Mars and its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. Among them is MEGANE, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer being developed in cooperation with NASA. Also on MMX is a small rover jointly developed by the French space agency CNES and German aerospace agency DLR to explore Phobos.
The primary mission of MMX is to touch down on Phobos and collect samples of Phobos for return to Earth. Scientists plan to analyze the samples to determine if Phobos, and likely Deimos, were formed by a collision of a larger object with Mars, or are small asteroids that were captured into orbit by the planet. Under the revised mission schedule, MMX will return the samples to Earth in 2031.
Quelle: SN
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Update: 14.02.2024
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IDEFIX Phobos rover sent to Japan ahead of mission to Mars
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is JAXA’s lead mission that plans to survey and explore Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos. While the Japanese agency will build the main payload, the German Space Agency (DLR) and the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) will contribute to the mission. “IDEFIX,” a small secondary payload, will ride with MMX and is planned to touch down on the surface of Phobos in 2029.
IDEFIX recently finished construction, and DLR and CNES are set to deliver the rover to JAXA for integration with the MMX mission.
The IDEFIX rover
IDEFIX is named after the dog from the comics “The Adventures of Asterix.” The name refers to the wordplay “Idée Fixe,” which roughly translates to an obsession or a passion that somebody fixates on.
The rover itself weighs 25 kilograms, is 51 centimeters long, and is designed to explore up to 100 meters of Phobos’ surface. During one of MMX’s closest approaches to Phobos, the rover will be released at an altitude between 40 and 100 meters above the surface and touch down on Phobos.
The drop utilizes the low gravity of Phobos, which will allow IDEFIX to just fall onto the surface, roll, and then raise itself to prepare for the roughly three-month-long mission. The gravity of Phobos is only roughly 1/1000th of the gravity of Earth, which can be attributed to the moon’s small size. Phobos only has a diameter of approximately 27 kilometers.
“Thanks to the low gravity, IDEFIX will need between 60 to 80 seconds from release to the touchdown on Phobos. The impact will be with less than one meter per second,” explained Professor Markus Grebenstein, who is DLR’s project lead for IDEFIX, in an interview with NSF.
IDEFIX’s mission duration will be around 100 days and is limited by the fact that the main MMX mission will eventually move away from Phobos. The MMX spacecraft will be used as a relay for IDEFIX, so without the spacecraft orbiting near Phobos, IDEFIX will no longer be able to communicate and operate on the surface. In addition to considering MMX’s position around Phobos during the IDEFIX mission, the team also had to factor in Martian eclipses to ensure they were maximizing solar exposure and minimizing Phobos nights.
Volume and weight were a main consideration when building IDEFIX, as the rover had to be as lightweight and small as possible in order to fit as a secondary payload on MMX. After touchdown, the sequence to raise itself is critical and automated. If the rover fails to raise itself, it will not be able to generate enough solar power to continue its mission. Without adequate solar power, IDEFIX’s instruments would be unable to operate, and other rover systems would be unable to heat themselves — which would be a major issue given that Phobos’ surface can get as cold as -112 degrees Celsius.
“What motivates us are several factors. Of course, one of them is attempting the first touchdown on the surface of Phobos. It will also be the first time that we attempt to land on a celestial body with such low gravity, and of course, being the first to collect surface probes from Phobos motivated us. It´s a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” said Professor Grebenstein
IDEFIX’s construction was completed in July 2023, with testing beginning soon after. Testing included several drop tests, where DLR and CNES tried to simulate all the different potential ways the rover could hit the surface and roll on the ground.
About the touchdown sequence, Grabenstein said, “The Rover is designed to always perform the same sequence once it touches down. No matter how we land, the sequence should always lead to the rover getting on its wheels. This makes the whole process way more redundant against potential malfunctions.”
The rover’s wheels are also designed in a special way. “The main challenge is the low contact pressure, thanks to the low gravity. But a second challenge is also the fact that we do not exactly know the properties of the ground. […] There is a potential that the ground is more like powder snow, which is the reason for this paddle wheel-like design,” Professor Grebenstein said.
IDEFIX’s lead scientist, Dr. Stephan Ulamec, adds, “You saw the available pictures we have from Phobos. They are fairly low-resolution. It looks like it could be a regolith area, which it most likely is, but it could also be a rubble surface. We will just get to know this once we are there.”
The motors that are needed to turn the rover are comparable to other motors DLR already uses for the finger movement of robotic arms at its science center, with special modifications made to optimize for working in Phobos’ low gravity environment. Grabenstein said, “We already used these motors for our hand-arm robotics system, medical robotics, and even for an in-space robotic arm.”
The science of IDEFIX
Phobos is the innermost and largest of the two moons of Mars, the other being Deimos. It is an irregularly shaped moon with a radius of 11 kilometers and an orbital altitude of 6,000 kilometers above the Martian surface. In fact, Phobos orbits closer to its planet than any other moon in the solar system. For comparison, Earth’s moon orbits at an altitude of roughly 384, 399 kilometers from Earth’s surface, or about 64 times farther than Phobos.
One of the most pressing questions in all of planetary and solar system science is Phobos’ (and Deimos’) origin. Both moons look similar to C-type asteroids, which suggests that Phobos and Deimos could actually be two asteroids that happened to pass too close to Mars and were captured by the planet’s gravity. However, scientists have questioned Mars’ ability to capture an object like Phobos so close to its atmosphere.
“One thing you will be able to observe when looking closer at Phobos is two different materials. You will see the more red background and the more blue-ish surface. This is not fully understood yet,” said Dr. Ulamec.
“Looking at Phobos, it reminds me of a certain class of asteroids. These kinds of asteroids are rich in carbon and are potential culprits for delivering matter to develop life. […] However, one problem with this theory is the orbital dynamics of capturing such objects. There are theoretical scenarios where a potential double asteroid constellation could result in such a scenario. This works great on paper but sounds more unlikely with two moons of Mars,” Dr. Ulamec explained.
Another theory that is possible is the theory of a heavy impact at Mars that helped form these moons. Regarding the theory, Ulamec says, ”These theories also work very well on paper. However, this does not explain the spectrum and colors of the moons.”
IDEFIX will be equipped with four main instruments, which will help to understand the origin and exact sediment details of Phobos. The first is a NavCam, which is a CNES-provided instrument for optical-stereo navigation. The second is RAX, a Raman-spectrometer, which was developed by DLR, JAXA, and the Spanish space agency INTA. RAX will be used to generate a structural fingerprint of Phobos.
Next is WheelCams, which are two optical sensors at two wheels that will research the interaction between IDEFIX’s wheels and Phobos’ surface material. The WheelCams were developed by CNES. The final instrument is MiniRad, a DLR-developed infrared radiometer, which was developed around the design of the MARA instrument on the MASCOT-lander.
Dr. Ulamec explained, “Of course, the main goals of IDEFIX and MMX will be to uncover the real history behind the origin of Phobos and also understand the context of the whole Mars system better.”
MMX is set to launch no earlier than December 2026 on a Japanese H3-24 rocket. The full mission plans to land once or twice on Phobos, collect 10 grams of samples, and then perform several flybys of Deimos before returning to Earth.
(Lead Image: Artist’s depiction of IDEFIX on Phobos. Credit: DLR/CNES/JAXA)
Quelle: NSF
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Launch Schedule of the second H3 Launch Vehicle (H3TF2) [Rescheduled]
February 14, 2024 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hereby announces that the launch date of the second H3 Launch Vehicle (H3TF2: Test Flight No. 2) from the Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC) has been scheduled as follows, as a result of today’s weather assessment.
The launch time will be announced once confirmed.
| Launch date | : February 17, 2024 (Saturday) |
|---|---|
| Launch Window | : 9:22:55 (JST) through 13:06:34 (JST) The time is the 24-hour clock |
| Reserved Launch Period | : February 18, through March 31, 2024 |
Quelle: JAXA
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Update: 7.03.2024
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This little rover will ride shotgun on Japan's ambitious Mars moon sample-return mission
IDEFIX is a European-built rover for Japan's Phobos sample-return mission.
(Image credit: CNES/DLR/JAXA (ASTERIX® OBELIX® IDEFIX® © Année LES EDITIONS ALBERT RENE / GOSCINNY-UDERZO))
A small rover built in Europe has arrived in Japan in preparation for its voyage to Mars.
The autonomous 55-pound (25-kilogram) rover is called IDEFIX and is part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Martian Moon Exploration (MMX) probe that aims to collect samples of the Mars' moon, Phobos.
The little, four-wheeled rover recently arrived in Japan, according to a Feb. 26 post on X (formerly known as Twitter) written by the MMX mission account.
IDEFIX, named for the small white dog in the Asterix comics, was jointly built by the German Aerospace Center (known by the German acronym DLR) and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).
After a long journey from Europe, the MMX rover IDEFIX (developed by @DLR_EN/@CNES) has arrived in Japan! We share in the team’s gleeful “Yatta!/Tadaa!” as the rover is unpacked 📦🤩 An official handover will take place after post-transport checks 🇯🇵🇫🇷🇩🇪 Welcome to Japan, IDEFIX! pic.twitter.com/y2CXed8ya8February 26, 2024
The main MMX spacecraft aims to grab 0.35 ounces (10 grams) of Phobos' material in 2029. It will then send the precious cargo towards Earth; arrival is expected to occur in 2031. IDEFIX will play a part in this overall objective by landing on Phobos first and gathering key information in preparation for the landing of the main spacecraft. The rover will also analyze the Martian moon's surface composition and texture at selected locations, according to DLR — if it can land and operate successfully in a near zero-gravity environment all by itself, that is.
"The biggest challenge for IDEFIX is that it has to carry out many operations — particularly the uprighting after landing on Phobos — fully autonomously in order to survive," Stéphane Mary, CNES Project Manager for IDEFIX, said in a DLR statement. "It wouldn't survive if it waited for commands from Earth to arrive."
A key goal of MMX is to determine whether Phobos and its fellow Martian satellite Deimos are captured asteroids or a coalescence of fragments that were blown into orbit after a giant impact struck Mars.
MMX was originally scheduled to launch in September of this year, yet doubts over the readiness of the new Japanese H3 rocket meant JAXA took the decision to delay the mission until the next Mars launch window in 2026.
H3 has since reached Earth orbit for the first time, bouncing back from the failure of its debut launch in 2023. The mission will launch on an H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in 2026, hopefully arriving in Mars orbit in 2027 to begin mapping and analyzing Deimos and Phobos. IDEFIX and the main MMX spacecraft will then be able to land on Phobos in 2029.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 17.03.2024
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NASA Delivers Science Instrument to JAXA’s Martian Moons Mission
U.S. and Japanese team members gather around and discuss the gamma-ray spectrometer portion of the MEGANE instrument during its development at Johns Hopkins APL.
NASA/JAXA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman
On March 14, NASA delivered its gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer instrument to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for integration onto JAXA’s MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission spacecraft and final system-level testing.
Scientists suspect the asteroid-sized bodies either are remnants of an ancient collision between Mars and a large impactor or are themselves asteroids captured by Mars’ gravity. By measuring the energies of neutrons and gamma rays emitted from the surface of Phobos, MEGANE will let MMX “see” the elemental composition of the moon’s surface and help peg the likely origin of the moon.
“MEGANE will be a key instrument on MMX, making a big contribution toward the goal of understanding the origin of the Martian moons,” said Thomas Statler, MEGANE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA is glad to see MEGANE ready for integration, another step in NASA’s continuing collaboration with JAXA on this groundbreaking mission."
The instrument team received the green light last fall to ship MEGANE (pronounced meh-GAH-nay, the Japanese word for “eyeglasses”) after the project’s standing review board evaluated the device’s readiness. That milestone marked the end of a demanding 6-year design and development process, which met NASA’s cost and schedule constraints.
“Passing the pre-ship review and delivering the hardware are significant steps for all those working on MEGANE,” said APL’s David Lawrence, the instrument’s principal investigator. “Like all spaceflight builds, we have had challenges getting to this point, but we are excited to see how MEGANE works with all the other spacecraft components for this exciting MMX mission.”
With MEGANE now in Japan, the MMX team will begin integrating the scientific instruments, including MEGANE, with other spacecraft components, before putting the entire system through a series of tests in preparation for launch, which is scheduled for fiscal year 2026, aboard a JAXA H3 rocket.
“For me personally, I’m looking forward to all the integration and test operations that are to come,” said Sarah Bucior, a space systems engineer in SES and the MEGANE I&T Lead Engineer. “I love rockets, so I’m really interested to see how they build their spacecraft and then follow it along to launch operations and liftoff.”
MEGANE was developed under NASA’s Discovery Program, which provides low-cost access to space. The Discovery Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The instrument science team includes investigators from APL, LLNL, Marietta College, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and JAXA.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 12.04.2024
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JAXA Confident On Delayed MMX Martian Moon Mission
COLORADO SPRINGS—The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) says the successful second flight of its H3 medium-lift rocket in February has boosted confidence in the vehicle’s ability to launch the agency’s Martian Moons eXploration, or MMX, sample return mission in 2026.
Originally scheduled to launch later this year, the mission to the Martian moon Phobos was delayed by JAXA in January following the second-stage failure of the H3 on its debut launch in March 2023. The agency also determined more time was needed to complete ground verification tests of the 4,000-kg. (8,820-lb.) MMX spacecraft.
Commenting to Aerospace DAILY here in Colorado Springs on the sidelines of the Space Symposium, Masaki Fujimoto, deputy director general of JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences, says the H3 “now seems to be going well.” He adds that despite the two-year delay, JAXA is only considering some minor efforts to add “more sophistication” to some of the MMX experiments, but will otherwise leave the spacecraft as is.
The MMX mission is designed to study Mars and its two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. One of the MMX payloads is a rover, jointly developed by the French space agency CNES and German aerospace agency DLR, which will touch down on Phobos. The rover, dubbed IDEFIX, was formerly handed over to JAXA from its European makers on March 7.
Owing to the size and surface composition of the Martian moon, Fujimoto says MMX will use a pneumatic sample collection system rather than the penetration devices used on the Hayabusa 2 mission to the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu in 2019-20. The MMX also will incorporate a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer being developed in cooperation with NASA.
The mission aims to clarify the origin of the Martian moons and the process of planet formation in the Solar System, as well as prove technology required for the return trip between the Earth and Mars. It also will prove advanced sampling techniques and help establish optimal communication technologies using a newly developed ground station.
Originally scheduled to enter orbit around Mars in August 2025 and return in September 2029, the mission's revised timetable now calls for the spacecraft to stay in Mars orbit for three years, with the sample due to return to Earth in 2031.
Quelle: Aviation Week
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Update: 15.08.2026
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JAXA unveils Martian moon probe to be launched on sample-taking mission
Japan's space agency has shown to the media a Martian moon probe scheduled to be launched as early as this autumn. The goal of the mission will be to bring the first-ever surface samples of the moon Phobos back to earth.
Members of the media were invited to the Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday to view the Martian Moons Exploration craft, or MMX.
JAXA has spent around 347 million dollars developing the probe for what it hopes will be the world's first successful attempt to land on a Martian moon and bring back surface samples.
The probe has three modules. Together, they stand 5.3 meters high, and weigh over 4.4 tons.
One of the modules that holds the engine and fuel tank is to be used on the trip to the Martian moon. This part was kept detached from the other two when shown to the media.
The second module is for exploration. It comes with four legs to land on Phobos, and carries a device that will be used to collect surface samples and observation equipment.
The third module, for the return trip, has a capsule to hold the collected samples. It is also equipped with super high-definition cameras developed jointly by JAXA and NHK.
The probe is scheduled to be launched on a Japanese H3 rocket this autumn at the earliest. It is expected to take about one year to reach Mars where it will spend three years in exploration. If all goes according to plan, the craft will arrive back on earth five years after launch, with sands collected from the surface of Phobos.
JAXA project manager Kawakatsu Yasuhiro said now that the development of the probe is completed, the project team is standing at the starting line of the space mission. He added that he can't wait to see the images that the high-resolution cameras will capture.
Quelle: NHK WORLD
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Update: 21.08.2026
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JAXA to Launch Mars Moon Exploration Spacecraft on Oct. 20
Tokyo,--The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Thursday that it will launch an H3 rocket carrying a Mars moon exploration spacecraft on Oct. 20.
The No. 10 H3 rocket is scheduled to blast off from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, at 4:41:03 a.m. that day.
The Martian Moons eXploration, or MMX, spacecraft is expected to arrive near Mars about a year after the launch. It will observe Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, and collect samples from the surface of Phobos.
The MMX spacecraft is expected to return to Earth in fiscal 2031, with samples including sand.
Quelle: nippon.com
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Update: 10.10.2026
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NASA Briefing to Highlight Contributions to Martian Moons Mission
An artist’s concept of JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft at Mars. Credit: JAXA
Media are invited to join NASA for a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 15, to preview the agency’s contributions to JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission. The mission is scheduled to launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, Oct. 19 EDT (Tuesday, Oct. 20 JST).
Audio of the media teleconference will stream on the agency’s website at:
Participants in the briefing, who will provide an overview of the mission and NASA’s contributions, include:
- Lindsay Hays, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Tom Statler, MMX program executive and scientist, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
- David Lawrence, MEGANE (Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma-rays and Neutrons) principal investigator, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
- Kris Zacny, vice president, Blue Origin’s Honeybee Robotics
Media interested in participating by phone must RSVP no later than two hours prior to the start of the teleconference to Molly Wasser at molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
The MMX spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2027 to begin its survey of the Red Planet’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos. After surveying Phobos in detail, the spacecraft will collect a sample of the moon’s surface no earlier than December 2028 and deliver it to Earth in 2031. NASA’s contributions to the mission include the MEGANE gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, the spacecraft’s surface sampler mechanism, and communications and navigation support from the agency’s Deep Space Network, as well as funding United States scientists participating on the MMX science team.
The MEGANE instrument was developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, developed the spacecraft’s pneumatic sampler mechanism. NASA’s contributions to the MMX mission were funded by the agency’s Discovery Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for high-value, focused planetary science investigations. The Discovery Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 19.10.2026
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Mars moon lander set to launch on 19 October
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is set to launch into space on a H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 04:41 JST on 20 October 2026 (20:41 BST / 21:41 CEST on 19 October 2026). MMX will be the first mission to collect a sample from Mars’s moon Phobos and bring it back to Earth.
MMX is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the French space agency (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Why the martian moons?
Mars has two moons: Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror). Despite the large fleet of missions sent to the Red Planet, the moons remain particularly mysterious, with huge open questions about how they formed and what they are made of. No spacecraft have dwelled near them for long, so we only really know what a few flybys have revealed.
We don’t even know their origin story. They may be asteroids that were captured into Mars orbit, or they may be the remnants of debris thrown into orbit after a giant collision on the surface of Mars. To find out, we need to collect samples.
“The data and samples returned by MMX are a window to study the evolution of Mars and the Solar System,” says Elliot Sefton-Nash, ESA MMX Project Scientist.
Just like Earth, Mars has changed a lot since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. Conditions there may once have been suitable for life. Digging up this history will also tell us more about how Earth and the rest of the Solar System formed and evolved, and perhaps even rocky planets around other stars.
What’s new?
MMX will be the first spacecraft to orbit Phobos (in a 'quasi-satellite orbit'), and the first to collect samples from a moon's surface other than our own. Special technology has been created to help land, manoeuvre and collect samples robotically in the extremely low gravity at Phobos.
After achieving all that, MMX will be the first mission that returns to Earth after visiting the Mars system. The ability to make such round trips could be interesting for future robotic missions that bring back samples from Mars itself, and potentially even visiting Mars with humans in the future.
The main MMX spacecraft will study Phobos from a distance, then deploy a rover called Idefix to the moon's surface, before finally landing on Phobos to collect samples to return to Earth. On the way home, it will fly past and further investigate Deimos and Mars itself.
The mission carries a total of 11 science instruments: seven on the main spacecraft, and four on the rover. The main spacecraft also carries a radiation monitor, two high-resolution cameras, and two different sampling devices.
The 25-kg Idefix rover has two main tasks: providing information to prepare for the landing of the main spacecraft to collect samples, and analysing the composition and texture of Phobos’s surface. The gravity on Phobos is so low that Idefix will only weigh the equivalent of 15 grams on its surface!
What does the mission timeline look like?
MMX will take around a year to arrive at Mars. It is expected to enter orbit around the Red Planet in August 2027, and orbit Phobos from September 2027. After studying Phobos (and Deimos) from a distance, MMX will release Idefix in early 2029.
With ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft confirmed to operate at Mars until at least 2029, the long-running orbiter may be able to support MMX’s observations. ESA's upcoming ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will nicely complement MMX by collecting samples from Mars's subsurface and analysing them with an onboard laboratory.
In 2030, the main spacecraft will land on Phobos to collect samples and pack them into a return module for the journey back to Earth. This module will arrive back at Earth in 2031 and send down at least ten grams of Phobos material in a sample return capsule.
The capsule will land in Australia before being transferred to Japan, where the sample will be extracted, catalogued, and shared with mission partners. Samples are planned to be made available to European scientists, and ESA is working with CNES, DLR, and JAXA to provide announcements of opportunity to work with the samples. Tiny amounts of sample may contain a lot of information that can be revealed with precise measurements.
“Bringing samples to our most sophisticated labs here on Earth is a multiplier for discoveries, because our most precise instruments are too large, complex or sensitive to send to space,” says Elliot. “Even after the mission has been completed, future generations of scientists will study the Phobos samples with even more advanced instruments – samples brought to Earth are the gift that keeps on giving.”
Quelle: ESA
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