Overview
- The MMX spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Tanegashima on Tuesday, Oct. 20, beginning a roughly five‑year round trip that will arrive at Mars in 2027 and aim to return samples to Earth in 2031.
- NASA is a major partner on MMX and is supplying the MEGANE gamma‑ray/neutron spectrometer, the P‑Sampler pneumatic collection system, Deep Space Network support, and plans to curate about 15 percent of returned material at Johnson Space Center.
- The mission will deploy the 25 kg IDEFIX rover to scout Phobos and use two complementary samplers — a JAXA coring arm and NASA’s high‑pressure nitrogen P‑Sampler — to collect at least about 10 grams of regolith from multiple touchdowns.
- The H3 rocket’s recent flight failures make this launch programmatically important for Japan because a successful mission would bolster confidence in the vehicle that must place MMX on the path to Mars.
- MMX is a broad international effort with CNES, DLR, ESA and about 20 universities and companies involved, and its samples and in‑situ data will test whether Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids or debris from a giant impact on Mars.