Japan to launch spacecraft on a mission to get samples from a Martian moon

The Japanese-led Mars Moons Exploration mission launched on Monday night

The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars’s orbit in August next year and collect at least 10g of soil and rock from the surface of Phobos, one of two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting the planet.

The climax for MMX will come in 2029, when the spacecraft will attempt up to two landings on Phobos.

The mission will aim to collate evidence of how Mars and its moons formed.

It is hoped the world-first, five-year mission will help to answer the burning question of whether there was ever life on Mars.

An international space mission aiming to collect sand and rock from one of Mars's moons is expected to land in Australia once the sample is retrieved.

Japan has launched a spacecraft on world-first, five-year mission to Mars, in a bid to answer the burning question: Did life ever exist on the red planet?

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

Voyage due to launch early Tuesday morning Japan time will be watched for further potential signs of life on red planet

For the first time ever, a spacecraft will travel all the way to the Mars system and return. But first, it has to get through the launch

A spacecraft is set to launch on an ambitious mission to bring 10g of Martian moon dust back to Earth.

Japanese space agency leads five-year mission to Phobos, one of ‘most important unclimbed mountains in the solar system’ 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.…