The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission in September 2024. The MMX mission will explore the origin of Mars’ moons, Phobos and Deimos. The mission will also land on Phobos and collect a surface sample, which is planned to be delivered to Earth in 2029.
The MMX mission will launch from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan and arrive in orbit around Mars about a year later. The mission will then adjust its orbit to stay near Phobos, making observations of Deimos along the way.
The MMX mission will feature a German-French rover that will explore the surface of Phobos. Phobos is covered with a very dark gray regolith (unconsolidated rocky debris) that reflects only about 6 percent of the light falling on it. The most prominent feature on Phobos is Stickney Crater, which is about 6-miles (9.7 kilometers) wide, and takes up about half the moon’s surface.
A piece of Mars’s biggest moon is coming back to Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is sending a spacecraft to Phobos to examine its surface and bring back samples that should help researchers figure out exactly how this strange moon formed.
The MMX mission will involve:
- Launching from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan using an H-3 rocket
- Reaching Mars orbit in August 2025
- Adjusting its orbit to stay near Phobos, making observations of the smaller moon Deimos along the way
- Landing once or twice on Phobos and gathering sand-like regolith particles
- Aiming to retrieve a minimum 10 g of samples
- Delivering the sample to Earth in 2029
The MMX mission will comprise three modules: a return module, an exploration module, and a propulsion module. The total mass of the spacecraft is about 3400 kg.
JAXA’s Martian Moon eXploration missionThe Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, has a robotic mission in development called the Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, planned for launch around September 2024. The mission’s main science objective is to determine the origin of Mars’ moons
The MMX rover is a wheeled rover that will be used to collect surface samples from Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons. The rover will be the first to drive on the surface of a Martian moon and in a low gravity environment
The rover will be deployed on Phobos in early 2027. It will perform scientific measurements with its four science instruments for about 100 days.
The MMX rover is a contribution by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the GermanAerospace Center (DLR) to the MMX mission. The rover’s architecture was co-developed with the German Space Agency
The MMX mission will also:
- Create high-resolution digital terrain models of the Martian moons
- Study the role of interplanetary dust particles in the formation of ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere
- Investigate whether the moons are captured asteroids or fragments that coalesced after a giant impact with Mars
- Acquire new knowledge on the formation process of Mars and the terrestrial planets
Mars has two moons: Phobos and Deimos. Both moons are irregularly shaped and much smaller than Earth’s moon
The moons were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall and are named after the characters Phobos (panic/fear) and Deimos (terror/dread) who, in Greek mythology, accompanied their father Ares, god of war, into battle.
The moons are thought to be captured asteroids, or debris from early in the formation of our solar system. They are much smaller than Earth’s moon and rise in the west and set in the east, which is opposite to the behavior of our moon. This is due to their proximity to Mars and the planet’s relatively rapid rotation.
Mars is too low in mass to have formed with moons around it. A planet needs to gather large amounts of mass early on to draw enough material into its gravitational well to lead to its own lunar system
One theory is that the two moons are the sole survivors of a giant impact on Mars. The inner part of the ring formed a large moon, and gravitational interactions between this moon and the outer ring formed Phobos and Deimos. Later, the large moon crashed into Mars, but the two small moons remained in orbit.
Another theory is that Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt allowed its gravity to capture two asteroids a few million years ago.
Mars’s moons are unusual in several ways:
- Size Mars’s moons are among the smallest in the solar system. Phobos is 22.2 km in diameter and Deimos is 12.6 km.
- Composition Phobos and Deimos are made of C-type rock, which is similar to carbonaceous chondrite asteroids.
- Shape Phobos and Deimos are irregularly shaped, more like potatoes, and are heavily cratered from meteor strikes.
- Orbit Phobos orbits Mars three times a day, while Deimos takes 30 hours to orbit. Phobos is also closer to Mars, orbiting only 3,700 miles above the surface.
- Asphericity The moons are aspherical because Mars’s gravity is too weak to overcome the rock stresses.
- Origin Some astronomers believe the moons were once large asteroids captured by Mars’s gravity.
The moons of Mars look like asteroids because they are dark, cratered, and potato-shaped. Their irregular shapes are likely the result of impacts and gravitational forces over time
The moons are also among the darker objects in the solar system. They appear to be made of carbon-rich rock mixed with ice.
Small bodies don’t have enough gravity to pull themselves into a spherical form, so Phobos is potato shaped, like most asteroids
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