Japanese scientists are preparing for a mission to the moons of Mars to recover samples that could reveal the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, although a rival Chinese mission aims to return them first.
The unmanned Mars Moon Exploration (MMX) mission, scheduled to launch from Tanegashima Space Center in the coming months, could also lay the groundwork for humans to visit the Red Planet.
The spacecraft, which was unveiled to the media last Thursday, will remain in Mars orbit for about three years and will attempt to land on Phobos.
It will collect at least 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of material from the surface of Phobos, while the rover IDEFIX – the French name for the dog of the comic hero Asterix – will conduct observations on the surface.
The spacecraft will also observe Demios, another moon of Mars – but without landing – before the return capsule returns to Earth to land in Australia around 2031.
– Influencing or seizing –
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hopes the mission will reveal how Mars and its moons formed, a key piece of knowledge in determining how the solar system was born.
One theory about the origin of Mars’ moons – the “giant impact” hypothesis – is that they formed after a celestial body collided with Mars.
Meanwhile, the “capture” hypothesis posits that the moons are asteroids from the outer solar system that were captured by Mars’ gravity.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said that determining which one is correct will help reveal “how a habitable environment arises on terrestrial planets,” referring to the four rocky worlds closest to the sun – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
“MMX will shed light on the transport mechanisms that transported water, volatiles and organic compounds from the outer solar system to the inner rocky planetary region – processes that may have played a key role in making these worlds habitable,” said Patrick Michel, a French astrophysicist working at IDEFIX.
“If Phobos and Deimos are indeed remnants of these early delivery systems, they may hold clues to the origins of life itself, or rather, to the transport of materials that were essential for the emergence of life on rocky planets,” he told AFP.
The mission will also explore the possibility of using Phobos “as a natural space station” by creating the technology required for a round-trip to Mars — something “essential for crewed Mars exploration,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
– Mars legs –
MMX is a collaboration with the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as a group of universities and technology companies.
Developing the spacecraft’s landing legs was particularly difficult because gravity on Phobos is so low, according to Akinari Uehara, a Mitsubishi Electric engineer.
“We have to prevent (the probe) from falling by having legs to cushion the impact of the landing,” O’Hara said.
Japan’s unmanned Intelligent Lunar Lander (SLIM) — the “Moon Sniper” — flipped over after landing on Earth’s moon in 2024, but is still transmitting data and survived several two-week lunar nights.
Japan also has experience returning samples from space, including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s unmanned Hayabusa-2 spacecraft that returned 5.4 grams of rocks and dust collected from an asteroid hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth in 2020.
-Perseverance-
But MMX isn’t the only Mars mission trying to bring back materials.
NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been cruising the Red Planet since 2021, has already collected samples ready to be returned to Earth.
However, the mission was effectively canceled by President Donald Trump’s administration following a vote by the US Congress in January.
China also announced that its Tianwen-3 spacecraft is scheduled to launch around 2028, and will return Mars samples to Earth around 2031 — possibly before the MMX sample return.
China’s Tianwen-1 mission has already landed a rover called Zhurong on Mars in 2021, in one of the most impressive successes of China’s space program.
