{"id":20353,"date":"2026-08-16T06:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T06:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=20353"},"modified":"2026-08-16T06:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T06:41:09","slug":"japan-aims-for-the-moons-of-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=20353","title":{"rendered":"Japan aims for the moons of Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 300px 160px; gap: 2px; width: 460px; background: #eee; padding: 2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u6574\u884c\u5bbd\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876674\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 90px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876676\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u5de6\u4fa7\u7ad6\u6392 -->\r\n  <div style=\"height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876672\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"height: 500px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876680\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u6469\u5929\u697c\uff08\u548c\u5de6\u4fa7\u5b8c\u5168\u5bf9\u9f50\uff09 -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row: 3\/5; height: 750px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876678\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  \r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e6\" data-zoneid=\"5876682\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-right:0;padding-left:0\">\n<p>Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars\u2019 moons to retrieve samples that may unlock the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth, although a rival Chinese mission aims to make it back first.<\/p>\n<p>The unmanned Martian Moons eXploration (MMX), set to blast off from Tanegashima Space Center in the coming months, could also lay the groundwork for humans visiting the red planet.<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft, revealed to media last Thursday, will stay in Mars\u2019 orbit for around three years and will attempt to land on Phobos.<\/p>\n<p>It will collect at least 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of material from the surface of Phobos, while the IDEFIX rover \u2014 the French name for comic hero Asterix\u2019s dog \u2014 will conduct surface observations.<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft will also observe Demios, the other of Mars\u2019 moons \u2014 but without landing \u2014 before a return capsule heads back to Earth to land in Australia in around 2031.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Impact or capture \u2013<\/p>\n<p>The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hopes that the mission will reveal how Mars and its moons formed, a key piece of knowledge in working out how the Solar System was born.<\/p>\n<p>One theory for the origin of the Martian moons \u2014 the \u201cgiant impact\u201d hypothesis \u2014 is that they formed after a celestial body collided with Mars.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201ccapture\u201d hypothesis meanwhile postulates that the moons are asteroids from the outer Solar System that were captured by Mars\u2019 gravity.<\/p>\n<p>Determining which is right will help reveal \u201chow a habitable environment for life might have arisen on the terrestrial planets\u201d, JAXA said, referring to the four rocky worlds closest to the Sun \u2014 Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMMX will shed light on the transport mechanisms that delivered water, volatiles, and organic compounds from the outer Solar System to the inner rocky planet region \u2014 processes that may have played a key role in making these worlds habitable,\u201d said Patrick Michel, a French astrophysicist working on IDEFIX.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Phobos and Deimos are indeed remnants of these early delivery systems, they may hold clues to the origins of life itself, or to be more correct, to the transport of the materials that were key to the emergence of life on rocky planets,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>JAXA said that the mission will also explore the possibility of using Phobos as a \u201cnatural space station\u201d by establishing the technology required for a round trip to Mars \u2014 something \u201cessential for crewed Mars exploration\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Martian legs \u2013<\/p>\n<p>MMX is a collaboration with France\u2019s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) as well as a score of universities and tech companies.<\/p>\n<p>The development of the spacecraft\u2019s landing legs was particularly difficult as gravity on Phobos is extremely low, according to Akinari Uehara, a Mitsubishi Electric engineer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to prevent the (probe) from falling down, by having the legs cushion the impact of landing,\u201d Uehara said.<\/p>\n<p>Japan\u2019s unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) \u2014 the \u201cMoon Sniper\u201d \u2014 tipped over after touching down on Earth\u2019s Moon in 2024, but still transmitted data and survived several two-week lunar nights.<\/p>\n<p>Japan also has experience in bringing back samples from space, including JAXA\u2019s unmanned Hayabusa-2 which returned 5.4 grams of rock and dust collected from an asteroid several hundred million kilometres from Earth in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Perseverance \u2013<\/p>\n<p>But MMX is not the only Mars mission trying to bring back material.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover, which has been roaming the red planet since 2021, has already collected samples ready to be taken back to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>However the mission has effectively been cancelled by the administration of President Donald Trump following a US Congress vote in January.<\/p>\n<p>China has also announced its Tianwen-3 spacecraft is scheduled for launch around 2028 and will return Mars samples to Earth around 2031 \u2014 potentially earlier than MMX\u2019s sample return.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s Tianwen-1 mission already landed a rover named Zhurong on the surface of Mars in 2021, in one of the most spectacular successes of Beijing\u2019s space programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- \u603b\u5bb9\u5668\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u5bbd908px Grid\u7d27\u51d1\u5e03\u5c40 -->\r\n<div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 728px 160px; gap:2px; width:908px; background:#eee; padding:2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u901a\u680f\u9876\u90e8\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u6a2a\u5e45 908x258 \u8de8\u6574\u884c -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column:1\/-1; height:258px; background:#ff6b6b; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script 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data-height=\"600\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114301});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<br \/> Japan aims for the moons of Mars<br \/>\n<br \/>#Japan #aims #moons #Mars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars\u2019 moons to retrieve samples that may 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