NASA Aids JAXA Mission to Unravel Mysteries of Mars' Moons

NASA is playing a crucial role in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, a collaborative effort designed to significantly advance understanding of Mars’ moons, Phobos and Deimos. This mission builds upon NASA's extensive history of exploring the Red Planet and aims to characterize the moons, determine their origin, and ultimately deliver a sample of Phobos to Earth. The MMX spacecraft is scheduled for launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 3:41 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 19, which will be 4:41 a.m. JST on Tuesday, October 20.

Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, emphasized the mission's importance, stating, "The samples from MMX will bring forth paradigm-shifting science on the Mars system for generations to come, especially as NASA prepares to send the first humans to Mars." She highlighted the "extremely valuable" NASA-JAXA sample curation partnership, noting that NASA Science will support MMX sample curation and share portions of these samples for study to expand humanity’s understanding of the universe.

NASA's contributions to the MMX mission are multifaceted, including the development of the Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma rays and Neutrons (MEGANE) spectrograph instrument and the Pneumatic Sampler (P-Sampler) technology demonstration. The agency also provides critical communications and navigation support through its Deep Space Network and funds United States scientists participating on the MMX science team. Scientists have long debated the origin of Mars’ two moons, with theories suggesting they are either remains of a massive impact on Mars or ancient asteroids captured by its gravity billions of years ago.

Tom Statler, MMX program executive and program scientist at NASA Headquarters, explained that having the answer to their origin "will help illuminate that early era when Earth and the other inner planets may have been acquiring much of their water and organic compounds." The MEGANE spectrograph, pronounced meh-GAH-nay and meaning "eyeglasses" in Japanese, will help scientists understand Phobos' composition by measuring neutrons and gamma rays from its surface, providing clues about its origin. The P-Sampler, mounted on a spacecraft landing leg, will collect a ground sample using high-pressure nitrogen gas, complementing JAXA’s C-Sampler, which extracts deeper core samples. NASA plans to obtain and curate about 15% of the total returned sample at its Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Lab in Houston for future research.

The MMX spacecraft is projected to arrive at Mars in August 2027 to commence its detailed survey of the moons. Following an extensive survey of Phobos, the spacecraft will collect a surface sample no earlier than December 2028, with the ultimate goal of delivering it to Earth in 2031. The MEGANE instrument was developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, developed the P-Sampler mechanism. NASA’s contributions to MMX are managed under the agency’s Discovery Program, overseen by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate.

What to watch: The MMX spacecraft's launch and its journey to Mars.

Editor's note: Excellent synthesis of the NASA source, covering technical instruments, mission timeline, and leadership quotes accurately.