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Japan launches five-year Mars Moons mission to fetch first samples from Phobos and Deimos
Japan's Mars mission is under way: the MMX spacecraft lifted off before dawn Tuesday from Tanegashima Island on a five-year journey to the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, aiming to return samples to Earth in 2031 for the first time.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 20, 2026
• 4 Min Read
Launch from Tanegashima
Before dawn on Tuesday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency sent the spacecraft up from the country's main spaceport on Tanegashima Island, opening a five-year japan mars mission to the two moons of Mars. Officials declared success an hour later, when the spacecraft separated from the rocket's upper stage as planned.
Dubbed MMX for Martian Moons Exploration, the $578 million project carries a 5-tonne spacecraft that should reach Mars by late next summer, with dust, soil and rock due on Earth in 2031. Five of the world's space agencies joined forces for the attempt.
NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler, who is involved with the project, described the mood at liftoff:
"There's a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement and a lot of wow," said NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler
Landing on Phobos and the Idefix rover
The first stop is Phobos, a lumpy, potato-shaped rock about 14 miles (22 kilometres) across. The mission will attempt to set down both a robotic prospector and a rover there.
- •The French-German rover, named Idefix after the white terrier in the Asterix comics and no bigger than a microwave oven, will land on Phobos by itself, bouncing for several minutes before halting in the moon's extraordinarily low gravity.
- •The four-wheeled rover can right itself if it lands upside down, but not once its solar panels are deployed, according to the French Space Agency's Julien Baroukh; it then moves at 1 millimetre per second (0.04 inches per second).
- •Baroukh said all bets are off if it sinks into soft soil or gets wedged between rocks.
- •Idefix will serve as a "scout for safety," prowling Phobos for 100 days before the mothership's landing.
Japanese controllers want to avoid powdery soil and rough terrain when the mothership, a four-legged stationary lander, descends to gather samples in late 2028 or 2029. It will spend just two hours on Phobos, drilling and vacuuming up at least one-third of an ounce (10 grams) of material before launching back into space.
Markus Grebenstein, the German Space Agency's rover chief, framed the stakes:
"It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We are part of the first sample return mission from the Martian system"
A first, with rivals and setbacks behind
NASA has landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years, and China scored a 2021 touchdown, but no one has ever landed on Phobos or Deimos or brought back Mars samples. Japan arrives with two asteroid sample returns already completed.
The track record elsewhere is rougher: Russia stumbled in all three of its Phobos attempts, and in its only other Mars mission, Japan failed to get a spacecraft into orbit.
What scientists hope to learn
The open question is where the moons came from: whether they formed in the aftermath of an ancient collision between Mars and a battering space rock, or are stray asteroids that were captured. Scientists anticipate finding traces of Mars on Phobos, and NASA's acting planetary science director Lindsay Hays said the findings will help shape future Mars missions, including those by astronauts.
After studying Deimos during flybys, the spacecraft will leave the Martian neighbourhood in 2030 and hustle back to Earth for a 2031 sample delivery in the Australian desert. China plans to launch its own Mars sample return mission in 2028, and both countries are targeting 2031, setting up a race to bring back the first material from the Martian system. Meanwhile, NASA is still debating how to retrieve the more than 30 sample tubes collected by the Perseverance rover.
