Tokyo, Oct. 20 -- Japan has launched a mission aimed at becoming the first to land on one of Mars' moons and return samples from its surface to Earth.
An H3 rocket carrying the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center on Monday, according to a live broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The mission aims to return at least 10 grams of material from Phobos by 2031, with the first landing operation planned in around two years.
No spacecraft has successfully landed on either Phobos or Deimos, Mars' smaller moon. The Soviet union launched two probes in 1988, but neither completed its mission. Phobos 1 was lost after an erroneous command disabled its attitude-control system, while...