Japan launches mission to Mars to bring back samples from one of its moons

Japan launched a spacecraft towards Mars in a ground-breaking mission to bring back samples from the largest of the planet's two moons.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the spacecraft before dawn from the country's main spaceport on Tanegashima Island.

While NASA has successfully landed nine spacecraft on Mars over the past 50 years and China touched down in 2021, no one has managed to bring back samples from the planet or ventured onto its two mysterious moons, Phobos and Deimos.

If successful, samples of dust, soil and rocks from Phobos will arrive on Earth in 2031.

Five of the world's space agencies teamed up for the mission, which will aim to land a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos.

Scientists hope the $578m (£434.48m) mission will provide clues to how Phobos and its smaller sibling formed, and even shed light on the origins of life in the solar system.

Japan leads the international mission that includes equipment and communications support from NASA and other national space agencies.

"There's a lot of adrenaline and a lot of excitement and a lot of wow," said NASA astrophysicist Tom Statler, who's involved with the project.

Scientists chose to obtain 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 around 0.1% of the material brought back from Phobos, JAXA officials say.

Phobos, about 10 to 20 miles (20 to 30km) in diameter, orbits Mars at a distance of about 3,700 miles (6,000km) three times a day.

The moon is on a collision course with Mars, nearing the planet at a rate of 6ft (1.8m) every hundred years, according to NASA.

At that rate, the moon will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring, the space agency says.

Samples from Phobos could also help scientists to understand the origin of Deimos, as the two moons are believed to have similar roots, MMX principal investigator Kiyoshi Kuramoto said.

The mission includes plans to fly by Deimos and collect observations.

It will be a long journey to reach the red planet, 55 million km (34 million miles) away from Earth at their closest point.

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The actual flight distance will be 500 to 600 million kilometers (310-370 miles), MMX project manager Yasuhiro Kawakatsu said.

After launching on the H3 rocket, the spacecraft is set to arrive at the Mars region in around August 2027.

It will then fly near and around Phobos for three years to collect data and gather samples before returning home in 2031.

MMX is comprised of three modules - for propulsion, exploration and return - and weighs around five tonnes.

Only the third module will return home, with the samples stored in a capsule.

The spacecraft will carry 13 instruments, including a rover jointly developed by France and Germany that will land on the moon.

It will also contain a NASA sampling device and instrument to measure gamma rays, and the European Space Agency's deep space communication device.

A Japanese radiation monitor will collect data to help facilitate a future manned Mars exploration.

The French-German rover Idefix lands on Phobos first.

During a 100-day mission in around 2029, it will explore the moon's surface to help the subsequent Japanese soil-sampling.

Once the MMX lands some time later, JAXA scientists aim to collect at least 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of soil from Phobos from two sampling attempts using US and Japanese methods.

Established in 1969, the Tanegashima Space Center is the largest rocket-launch complex in Japan, located on Tanegashima Island - a popular beach destination.

(c) Sky News 2026: Japan launches mission to Mars to bring back samples from one of its moons