TOKYO: Japanese scientists are readying an uncrewed mission to Mars’ moons to retrieve samples that could unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, aiming to achieve the first round trip to the Martian region.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the Martian Moons eXploration probe aboard its flagship H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Centre at 4:41am. The collaboration involves Nasa, the European Space Agency, France’s National Centre for Space Studies, the German Aerospace Centre, and about 20 universities and technology companies.
The spacecraft will arrive near Mars around August next year to orbit its moon Phobos. During three years of operating within the Martian sphere, it will land to collect at least 10 grams of surface material and observe the moon Deimos before returning to Earth.
A rover dubbed IDEFIX — the French name for the comic hero Asterix’s dog — will first conduct surface observations to ensure a safe landing.
“The sampling from Phobos is of course the world’s first, but it means this is the first round trip to the Martian system,” Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, the mission’s project manager, told AFP.
JAXA said the mission could lay the groundwork for crewed exploration by testing the requirements for a round trip to Mars and evaluating Phobos as a “natural space station”.
Scientists also hope to determine how Mars and its two moons formed. The “giant impact” hypothesis suggests the moons formed after a celestial body collided with Mars, while the “capture” hypothesis postulates that Mars’ gravity snared passing asteroids.
Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2026
