Japan Launches MMX Mission to Bring Back Soil from Mars's Moon Phobos
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft on an H3 rocket (flight No. 10) at 04:41 Japan time on 20 October 2026, from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.
The mission costs about USD 578 million. It will study both moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, and land on Phobos to collect soil.
The plan: reach Mars orbit in 2027, collect at least 10 grams of samples from Phobos in 2030, and drop them back to Earth in 2031, in a capsule landing in the Woomera area of Australia.
If it succeeds, it will be the first time samples are brought back from the Mars system.
MMX carries a small rover called IDEFIX, built by the French and German space agencies (CNES and DLR). NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are also partners.
The launch was originally planned for 2024 but was delayed because of problems with the H3 rocket.
Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) Mission: Japan's Journey to Phobos
The Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, is a Japanese robotic spacecraft that will fly to Mars, land on its larger moon Phobos, collect some of its soil and bring it back to Earth. Its main question is simple: where did the moons of Mars come from? They may be captured asteroids, or pieces thrown off Mars after a giant impact. Soil in a laboratory can settle that question far better than pictures from far away.
The successful launch starts a five-year round trip. If MMX brings Phobos soil home in 2031, Japan will be the first country to return samples from the Mars system, building on its asteroid sample missions Hayabusa and Hayabusa2.
Sample Return Missions: Bringing Pieces of Space Back to Earth
A sample return mission is a space mission that travels to another world, such as the Moon, an asteroid, a comet or a planet's moon, collects some of its material and brings it back to Earth. Scientists value these samples because laboratories on Earth have far better instruments than anything a spacecraft can carry. Samples can also be stored and studied again for decades as new tools appear. These are among the hardest space missions, because the spacecraft must land, take off again and survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
MMX extends Japan's lead in sample return from asteroids to the moons of Mars. For India, it is a useful reference as ISRO prepares Chandrayaan-4, which needs the same skills: landing, collecting, lifting off and returning safely.
- Mission: Martian Moons eXploration (MMX), by JAXA
- Launch: 20 October 2026, 04:41 JST, H3 rocket flight No. 10, Tanegashima Space Center
- Cost: about USD 578 million
- Target: Phobos (about 22 km across; orbits Mars in about 7.7 hours); also observes Deimos (about 12 km across)
- Samples: at least 10 grams, collected in 2030; returned to Woomera, Australia, in 2031
- Mars orbit insertion: August 2027
- Rover: IDEFIX (about 25 kg), built by CNES (France) and DLR (Germany)
- Partners: NASA, ESA, CNES, DLR
- Moons of Mars discovered by Asaph Hall, 1877