The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is led by Japan’s space agency, JAXA, in collaboration with France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The mission could also help lay the groundwork for future human exploration of Mars.
The H3 rocket carrying MMX, along with two French contributions, a rover and a spectrometer, lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 4:41 a.m. Tuesday local time (7:41 p.m. GMT Monday), according to a live broadcast by JAXA. Despite the early hour, thousands of people in Japan followed the launch live and posted messages of encouragement online.
More than an hour later, JAXA confirmed that the spacecraft had successfully separated from the rocket and had “begun its journey” toward the Mars region. “I had dreamed of this day, so I’m incredibly happy,” JAXA scientist Mari Aida said, adding that she felt “relieved.”
The spacecraft is expected to reach the vicinity of Mars in August 2027. It will spend three years operating near the Red Planet, orbiting Phobos, one of its two moons. It will then land on the moon to collect at least 10 grams of material.
Before the landing, the Franco-German rover Idefix, named after the dog in the Asterix comic books, is expected to become the first spacecraft to travel across Phobos’ surface. It will conduct surface observations and scout potential landing areas to help ensure a safe touchdown for the main spacecraft.
A “natural space station”
The mission also carries Mirs, a spectrometer developed by CNES and the Paris Observatory-PSL. Its role is to help scientists identify the most promising locations for sample collection, said astronomer Antonella Barucci, Mirs’ scientific lead.
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“Collecting samples from Phobos will be a world first,” MMX project leader Yasuhiro Kawakatsu told AFP.
JAXA said the mission would also assess the possibility of using Phobos as a “natural space station,” helping define the requirements for a round trip to Mars. Such work is “essential for crewed exploration” of the planet, Kawakatsu added.
MMX will also observe Deimos, Mars’ other moon, without landing on it, before returning to Earth.
JAXA hopes the mission will help explain how Mars and its two moons formed, providing important clues about the birth of the solar system.
Clues to the origins of life
MMX could also shed light on “the transport mechanisms that brought water, volatile elements and organic compounds from the outer regions of the solar system to the inner rocky planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, processes that may have played a key role in making these worlds habitable,” French astrophysicist Patrick Michel, research director at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), told AFP in August.
“If Phobos and Deimos are indeed remnants of these early delivery systems, they could hold clues to the very origins of life,” he added during preparations for the mission.
Japan has previous experience bringing extraterrestrial samples back to Earth. In 2020, JAXA’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft returned 5.4 grams of rock and dust collected from an asteroid hundreds of millions of kilometers away.
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The US and Chinese space agencies are also pursuing missions to bring rock samples from Mars back to Earth. NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet since 2021, has already collected samples for a potential return mission. However, that effort was effectively halted by the administration of US President Donald Trump following a congressional vote in January.
China has also announced plans to launch its Tianwen-3 spacecraft around 2028, with the aim of returning Martian samples to Earth by 2031, potentially before MMX completes its own return journey.
