Japan is to launch a spacecraft on the world’s first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars. Scientists hope the mission, which is expected to take five years, will provide clues to how Phobos and its smaller sibling Deimos formed, and hopefully even shed light on the origins of life in the solar system. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) is aiming to launch the spacecraft on Tuesday on a new Japanese mainstay H3 rocket.
Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, project manager for the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, said samples from Phobos would provide useful data for scientists to consider using a Martian moon as a base for a future manned mission to the planet. The US, China and others are hoping to send astronauts to Mars. Since the 1960s, dozens of missions have been sent to Mars, but its moons largely remain a mystery.
Multiple Russian attempts to land on Phobos, including one launched in 2011, have failed. Phobos and Deimos take their names from the Greek mythological personifications of fear and terror, sons of the war god Ares, whose Roman counterpart is Mars. A key question is how they formed and what they are made of.
Some scientists think the two irregular crater-pocked bodies could be remnants of debris formed after a large celestial object crashed into Mars. Others say the moons could be asteroids that have come from elsewhere. Jaxa officials think samples from Phobos will provide answers.
Scientists chose to collect samples from Phobos mainly because the moon is closer to Mars than Deimos, and therefore may have more information about the planet. Material from Mars is expected to make up about 0.1% of the material collected from Phobos, Jaxa officials say. Phobos is about 27km (17 miles) in diameter at its widest point, and orbits Mars at a distance of about 6,000km (3,700 miles) three times a day.
Samples from Phobos could also shed light on the origin of Deimos as the two moons were believed to have similar roots, Kuramoto said. The mission includes plans to fly by Deimos and collect observations. It will be a long journey to reach the red planet, which is 55m km away from Earth at its closest point.
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