TANEGASHIMA, Japan — Japan’s space agency is counting down to the launch of a spacecraft built to do something no mission has done before: land on one of the two moons of Mars, scoop up some of its surface and carry it home.
The Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft, known as MMX, is set to ride a Japanese H3 rocket off its pad at Tanegashima Space Center at 4:41 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, local time, which works out to Monday, Oct. 19, at 3:41 p.m. EDT on the U.S. East Coast. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency set the time on Sunday and noted that it could shift within the reserved launch window.
The target is Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars. Scientists still do not know where Phobos and its smaller sibling Deimos came from. One theory holds that they are asteroids pulled in by the gravity of Mars long ago. Another says they formed from rubble blasted into orbit when something huge slammed into the planet. A sample in hand could settle the argument and shed light on how water and organic material reached the inner planets, including Earth.
The trip to Mars takes about a year, with arrival planned for August 2027. The spacecraft will first study Phobos from a distance and in early 2029 drop off Idefix, a small rover from French and German partners that weighs about 25 kilograms on Earth but would weigh the equivalent of about 15 grams on Phobos because gravity there is so weak.
In 2030 the main spacecraft is set to touch down on Phobos and collect samples, then fly past Deimos and Mars on the way home. A capsule carrying at least 10 grams of Phobos material is due to land in Australia in 2031 before the sample goes to Japan for study.
The mission is a joint effort. NASA built a gamma-ray and neutron instrument called MEGANE, the Japanese word for eyeglasses, to measure what the surface is made of, and supplied a pneumatic sampler that uses bursts of nitrogen gas to grab loose material. NASA’s Deep Space Network will help track and talk to the spacecraft, and the agency will keep about 15% of the returned sample at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES and the German Aerospace Center are also partners. According to ESA, no spacecraft before MMX has circled Phobos in orbit, and it would also be the first to sample the surface of a moon other than our own, and the first to return to Earth after visiting the Mars system.
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