Afghanistan, Oct. 20 -- Japan has launched its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft to study Phobos and Deimos and return samples from one of Mars' two moons to Earth.
The spacecraft lifted off aboard Japan's H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center on October 20, Japan time, in a mission led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), France's CNES and Germany's DLR are also contributing to the project.
The MMX spacecraft is expected to reach the Mars system in August 2027, after a journey of about a year. It will then conduct detailed observations of Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons, while also studying Deimos from a distance.
The mission's central objective is to collect at le...