Japan’s MMX mission launches to Mars to collect a piece of its moon Phobos

Japan’s space agency, JAXA, successfully launched its MMX spacecraft aboard the H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center on October 20, 2026, marking the H3’s first interplanetary mission. The date also marks the anniversary of the 2018 launch of BepiColombo, the joint ESA–JAXA mission to Mercury, linking two major milestones in Japan’s planetary exploration programme. MMX will reach the Martian system in 2027 to study its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and investigate how they formed. The mission will deploy the German-French Idefix rover to explore Phobos’ surface before attempting to collect at least 10 grams of material. If successful, MMX will return the first samples from a Martian moon to Earth in 2031, potentially revealing new clues about the evolution of Mars and the early Solar System. Video credit: JAXA