Japan Launches New Spacecraft to Collect Dust from Martian Moon

A spacecraft has launched from Japan and is now headed toward Mars and its moon Phobos to collect dust and bring it back to Earth. If this mission succeeds, it will mark the first time a sample has ever been returned from the Martian system for laboratory analysis on our planet.

The Journey and Landing

The spacecraft is scheduled to reach Phobos in August 2027. Led by the Japanese Space Agency, the Mars Moons Exploration mission will first study the moon Deimos upon arrival before turning its focus to Phobos. The craft plans to deploy a small rover to explore the terrain and scout a landing site. Landing on Phobos is uniquely difficult because the moon is only about 20km across and lacks strong gravity of its own, while sitting right next to the massive gravitational pull of Mars. Once a site is chosen, the main spacecraft will touch down, use a robotic arm and two samplers to grab just 10g of moon dust, and pack it into a capsule. This sample will return to Earth in 2031 and land in the Woomera desert of South Australia.

Scientific Goals

Scientists hope this material will solve the mystery of how Mars formed its moons. Researchers currently debate whether Phobos and Deimos were created from debris after a massive space rock smashed into Mars, or if they are wandering asteroids from the outer Solar System that got trapped by the planet's gravity. When the sample arrives back on Earth, experts will study its chemistry and minerals to immediately tell which theory is correct. Researchers also hope the dust might contain tiny grains of Mars itself that were kicked up by past impacts on the planet's surface.

Context

Bringing physical samples back from the Red Planet or its moons has long been a major goal for space scientists trying to understand planetary history. While NASA's Perseverance rover has been collecting samples directly on Mars, plans by other space agencies to retrieve those canisters have faced severe funding cuts. This makes the Japanese mission a crucial current effort to bring extraterrestrial material back to laboratories on Earth.