Japan's MMX Sets Its Sights on Phobos, With a Sample Booked for the Trip Home

JAXA's MMX spacecraft is targeting launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center at 3:41 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 19. It has two jobs: characterize Mars' moons, Phobos and Deimos, and determine their origin — and deliver a sample of Phobos back to Earth. The combination is what makes the mission worth watching. Origin questions about small bodies are often argued at a distance, from spectra and images; MMX is betting that a piece of the Moon itself, studied directly, is worth the trip. NASA's contributions to the mission include the Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma rays and Neutrons (MEGANE) spectrograph instrument and the Pneumatic Sampler (P-Sampler) technology demonstration.