space
Japan's space agency is preparing to launch a probe in November 2026 aiming to do something no mission has done before at Mars.
JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission targets Phobos, one of Mars's two small, oddly shaped moons, whose origin is still debated — some scientists think it's a captured asteroid, others suspect it formed from debris blasted off Mars itself. By landing briefly, scooping up surface material, and flying it back to Earth, MMX aims to settle that question using instruments far more precise than anything that can fly aboard the spacecraft itself.
The mission won't land humans on Mars or build any permanent base — those are far more ambitious, decades-away goals. MMX is a robotic sample-return mission focused specifically on one of Mars's moons, not the planet's surface.
If successful, MMX would join a short list of sample-return missions, following the Moon and asteroids like Ryugu and Bennu, extending humanity's collection of pristine off-world material for lab study back on Earth.
space
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