Japan Targets 10-Gram Phobos Sample Return by 2031 on MMX Mission
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 18
Japan Targets 10-Gram Phobos Sample Return by 2031 on MMX Mission
3 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 18
Summary
More than 10 grams of Phobos material is MMX’s headline goal, with JAXA planning launch in fiscal 2026 and capsule recovery in Australia in fiscal 2031.
About 1,700-times weaker gravity than Earth makes the sampling attempt difficult: MMX must map Phobos for years, then execute a roughly 2.5-hour touchdown with only about 90 minutes for collection.
A 25-kilogram rover, IDEFIX, is due to land first from tens of metres up, bounce into position and spend about 100 days testing traction and studying the regolith before the main spacecraft descends.
Two collection systems—a 1.5-metre coring arm and a gas-driven sampler—are meant to cope with uncertain surface behavior while preserving material for mineral, isotopic and organic analysis on Earth.
Those grains could help resolve whether Phobos is a captured asteroid or impact-made moon, and may also contain Martian ejecta and traces of the planet’s escaping atmosphere.