Japan's JAXA to launch MMX mission for Phobos soil samples in 2025

Japan’s space agency, JAXA, will launch its Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) spacecraft on 2025‑06‑16 from the Uchinoura Space Center, aiming to visit Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two small moons. The launch will use JAXA’s new H3 rocket, and the probe will carry a sample‑collection device and a return capsule that will bring back material to Earth. The mission will be the first time a spacecraft lands on a moon and brings samples back.

Phobos is a mystery. Scientists think it might be a captured asteroid or a remnant of a collision that created Mars’s rings. Studying its surface could reveal how the early solar system formed and how small bodies evolve. By returning regolith, MMX will let scientists examine the moon’s composition in a lab, looking for organic molecules, water ice and mineralogy that are impossible to study from orbit. The data could also inform future asteroid mining and help design safer landers for other small bodies.

The MMX probe will travel roughly 400 million kilometres to Mars, arriving in late 2025. After orbit insertion, it will perform a series of orbital adjustments to approach Phobos at a safe speed. A robotic arm will touch down on the moon’s surface, scoop up 5 kg of soil, and seal it in a sealed capsule. The probe will then leave Phobos, travel back to Mars orbit, and return to Earth in 2028, landing in a remote area of western Japan where the capsule will be recovered for analysis.

The mission is part of a broader effort to develop technology for future deep‑space exploration, including sample‑return missions to asteroids and the Moon. The data from Phobos will help scientists test theories about its origin and the processes that shaped Mars’s environment. If successful, MMX will prove the feasibility of collecting and returning samples from small, irregularly shaped bodies, opening the door to new missions that could mine resources or deliver human habitats to other worlds.