TOKYO: A Japanese spacecraft blasted out Tuesday on a quest to investigate the mysterious moons of Mars and return samples for the first time. Five space agencies are joining forces for a five-year project to place a robotic prospector and a rover on Phobos, the larger and closer of Mars’ two pint-sized moons.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, at the helm of the ambitious sampling operation, launched the spacecraft before daybreak from the country’s primary spaceport on Tanegashima Island. An hour later, the spacecraft detached from the rocket’s upper stage as anticipated, and officials hailed it as a success. Flight controllers broke into cheers and stood up, shaking hands and hugging. Phobos is a lumpy, potato-shaped moon about 14 miles (22 km) wide. Examining fragments of it can help explain how Mars’ moons, and perhaps moons elsewhere, formed.
The $578 million mission, named MMX for Martian Moons Exploration, carries a massive 5-ton spacecraft expected to reach Mars by late next summer. It will match the tight orbit of Phobos around the red planet, before ejecting the French-German rover called Idefix after the white terrier in the Asterix comics. Idefix, no bigger than a microwave oven, will crash onto Phobos on its own, bouncing for many minutes before coming to rest in the moon’s incredibly low gravity.
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