Overview
- The MMX spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Tanegashima on Monday, Oct. 19 (4:41 a.m. JST Oct. 20) and will begin a roughly ten‑month cruise to the Mars system.
- JAXA intends to land on Phobos, collect at least 10 grams of material using NASA’s pressurized‑gas sampler and JAXA’s shallow corer, seal the samples in a return capsule, and target a 2031 landing in Australia.
- The mission carries 13 scientific instruments and an Idefix rover built by French and German teams that is planned to touch down and survey Phobos around 2029 to help select sampling sites.
- Recent test failures of Japan’s new H3 rocket raise programmatic risk, so Monday’s launch serves as a crucial demonstration of the vehicle’s reliability before MMX begins its multi‑year campaign.
- Scientists say returned material could resolve whether the moons formed from a giant Mars impact or are captured asteroids and that detecting even tiny amounts of Martian ejecta would affect plans for future robotic and crewed Mars operations.