Japan has launched a $578 million mission on a five-year journey to land on Phobos, the largest moon of Mars, and retrieve samples for return to Earth.
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan, aboard a 207-foot-tall H3 rocket. The rocket, Japan’s flagship launch vehicle, debuted with a new configuration to accommodate the demands of this ambitious interplanetary mission.
The nearly 9,900-pound spacecraft separated from the H3 rocket about 71 minutes after liftoff, having reached a top speed of over 24,000 mph to break free of Earth’s gravitational pull. MMX established contact with ground controllers, unfurled its solar panels, and is in a “very stable condition” according to the mission’s project manager at JAXA.
“The MMX mission we launched today is a challenging mission aiming for the world’s first sample return from the Martian moons,” said Yoshihiro Seki, Japan’s science minister. “We hope that the results obtained through this mission will contribute to the development of our nation’s space science and exploration technology.”
Building on the success of the Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2 missions, which brought back pristine specimens from asteroids, MMX’s science goals include determining if Phobos is an asteroid that was captured into orbit around Mars billions of years ago.
