The Japanese Space Agency has launched the Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, a spacecraft designed to travel to Phobos, one of Mars’s two small moons, and collect samples for return to Earth. The mission represents an ambitious undertaking to retrieve pristine material from the Martian system for scientific analysis in terrestrial laboratories.
The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the Mars vicinity in August 2027. Upon arrival, it will conduct observations of Deimos, Mars’s other moon, before focusing on Phobos. The mission involves deploying a small rover to scout the terrain and identify an appropriate landing location, a challenging endeavor given Phobos’s minimal gravity in proximity to Mars’s much stronger gravitational field. Once a suitable site is identified, the MMX spacecraft will land and use a robotic arm and sampling devices to collect approximately 10 grams of material, which will be sealed in a capsule for return to Earth in 2031, with the landing site designated as the Woomera desert in South Australia.
Scientists anticipate the recovered samples will clarify the origin of Mars’s moons, which remains uncertain. Two competing hypotheses propose either that Phobos and Deimos resulted from debris generated by an ancient impact on Mars, or that they are captured asteroids from the outer Solar System. Analysis of the material’s chemical composition and mineral properties should distinguish between these theories relatively quickly.
An additional scientific benefit may result from Phobos’s proximity to Mars’s surface. Impacts on Mars potentially eject material that becomes embedded on Phobos, suggesting the returned samples might contain Martian surface material alongside lunar dust. This possibility would provide direct information about Mars’s composition and geological history.
The MMX mission occurs amid broader efforts by multiple space agencies to obtain samples from Mars. NASA’s Perseverance rover has been collecting Martian samples since 2021, though the NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return mission intended to retrieve these materials has been cancelled following congressional funding decisions. China is planning its own Mars sampling mission for launch in 2028, with a target return date of 2031.
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