Japan Launches a Spacecraft to Bring Back Soil from Mars's Moon Phobos
Leah and Sam explain how Japan's space agency launched the Martian Moons Exploration spacecraft toward Mars's inner moon Phobos after a two-year rocket delay, why scientists want to test Phobos soil in Earth laboratories to find out whether Mars's two moons are captured carbon-rich asteroids or pieces blasted off Mars in a giant crash, and how a French-German mini-rover and Japanese and NASA sampling tools will work in gravity nearly two thousand times weaker than Earth's before returning samples to Australia in 2031.
Show notes
In this episode
- 0:01 Opening
- 0:14 Japan launches a spacecraft to bring back soil from Mars's moon Phobos
- 4:44 Recap and outro
Sources and context
- Japan launches a spacecraft to bring back soil from Mars's moon Phobos: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) — Launch result of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard H3 Launch Vehicle Flight No. 10 and NASA Science — Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission overview and European Space Agency (ESA) — Mars moon lander mission overview and Reuters — Japan launches mission to return samples from Mars moon and BBC News — Mission blasts off for Mars to grab a piece of its moon
