Japan launched a $578 million mission Monday as part of a five-year expedition to land on Mars’ largest moon and collect samples to return to Earth, a bold international project that could provide new insights into the formation of the solar system.
The Martian Moons eXploration robotic mission, known as MMX, launched from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 3:41 p.m. EDT (Tuesday 4:41 a.m. Japan Standard Time) on Monday.
The MMX spacecraft flew into orbit on a 207-foot (63-meter) H3 rocket, Japan’s flagship launch vehicle. The rocket assigned to MMX debuted a new souped-up configuration with four strap-on solid rocket boosters, full-throttle main engines and expanded payload coverage to meet the requirements of Japan’s heaviest and most ambitious interplanetary mission to date.
The rocket’s upper stage accelerated the MMX spacecraft to a top speed of more than 24,000 miles per hour, fast enough to break free of Earth’s gravity for the 10-month journey to Mars. The nearly 9,900 pound (4.5 ton) spacecraft—Two-thirds of its mass consisted of fuel—separated from the H3 rocket about 71 minutes after launch.
A Japanese H3 rocket launches with the MMX mission from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.
Photo credit: JAXA
A Japanese H3 rocket launches with the MMX mission from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.
Photo credit: JAXA
Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), declared the launch a success. “A long journey of five years has just begun,” Yamakawa said.
According to Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, the mission project manager at JAXA, MMX established contact with ground controllers, deployed its solar panels and was in a “very stable state” shortly after separation from the H3 rocket. “So far, so good.”
“The MMX [mission] “Today we launched an ambitious mission aimed at the world’s first sample return from the moons of Mars,” said Yoshihiro Seki, Japan’s science minister. “We hope that the results achieved by this mission will contribute to the development of our country’s space science and exploration technology.”
Building on a legacy
The mission to the moons of Mars builds on Japan’s success in leading the Hayabusa and Hayabusa 2 missions, the world’s first two spacecraft to return pristine specimens of asteroids. Scientists believe Phobos itself may be an asteroid that entered orbit around Mars billions of years ago. One of MMX’s scientific goals is to find out whether this theory is correct.
