Overview
- JAXA is targeting launch from Tanegashima on Tuesday, October 19 (local Oct. 20), with the spacecraft staged for an Earth-to‑Mars flight that will reach the system in 2027.
- NASA hardware and support are integrated into the spacecraft, including the MEGANE gamma‑ray/neutron spectrometer, the P‑Sampler pneumatic collector, Deep Space Network tracking, and an agreement to curate about 15% of returned material at Johnson Space Center.
- MMX will land on Phobos, deploy a small rover called Idefix, and use two sampling methods—a pneumatic burst sampler for surface grains and JAXA’s C‑Sampler coring tool—to secure at least about 10 grams of material.
- The mission schedule calls for detailed surveys after arrival in August 2027, sample collection no earlier than December 2028, and return of a sealed capsule to Earth in 2031 with recovery planned in Woomera, Australia.
- Scientists expect the lab analysis of returned grains to decide between competing origin ideas—giant impact versus captured asteroid—which would reshape models of Mars’s early history and guide future Mars exploration.