A photograph of our planet taken during the Artemis II mission by astronaut Reid Wiseman 🛰

MMX: Japan’s daring mission to snatch the first sample from the Martian system JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft is already on its way to Mars. Its goal is ambitious: bring back at least 10 grams of soil from Phobos — the first material ever returned from the entire Martian system. The probe launched on 19–20 October 2026 aboard an H3 rocket from Tanegashima. In August 2027 it will enter Mars orbit, then shift a month later into a special quasi-satellite orbit around Phobos — a path that lets it hover near the tiny moon while still circling deep inside Mars’s gravity well. Before the main landing, MMX will drop a small rover called Idefix (built by Germany and France). The rover will simply be released from 40–100 metres above the surface. Phobos’s gravity is so weak — roughly 1,700 times weaker than Earth’s — that a 25 kg rover weighs the equivalent of about 15 grams there. It can’t really crash: even if it lands upside-down or on its side, it will right itself and start exploring, helping the team pick a safe landing site. In 2029–2030 the main spacecraft will touch down on Phobos once or twice. It carries two sampling systems: a corer that digs about 2 cm deep and a pneumatic sampler that blasts gas at the surface to loft and collect loose regolith. The target is at least 10 grams. After sampling, MMX will make several flybys of the smaller moon Deimos, then head home. The sample capsule is scheduled to land in the Woomera region of South Australia in 2031. The capsule will separate for entry, the return module will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, and the exploration module will stay in orbit. JAXA already has a strong track record with sample returns: Hayabusa brought back material from asteroid Itokawa in 2010, and Hayabusa2 returned samples from Ryugu in 2020. Now the agency is attempting the same feat on a moon of Mars — and trying to settle a long-standing mystery: are Phobos and Deimos captured asteroids, or the leftover debris of a giant ancient impact on Mars? A tiny piece of Phobos is on its way home.