Japan Launches Historic MMX Mission to Collect the First Samples from a Martian Moon

On October 19, 2026, at 3:41 p.m. EDT, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard an H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. MMX will be the first mission ever to collect samples from a Martian moon and bring them back to Earth. The spacecraft will take approximately ten months to reach Mars, arriving around August 2027, and will then spend roughly three years studying the Martian system — orbiting and studying both Phobos and Deimos, deploying a small IDEFIX rover built by French and German space agencies, and conducting at least two separate landings on Phobos to collect a planned 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of material. The samples will return to Earth in 2031. The mission is led by JAXA in collaboration with NASA, ESA, and other partners, with NASA contributing approximately $87 million and set to receive at least 15 percent of the returned sample. Scientifically, MMX aims to resolve a decades-long debate: are Phobos and Deimos asteroids from the early solar system that were captured by Mars' gravity, or did they coalesce from debris ejected when a large object struck ancient Mars? The answer could reshape understanding of how the inner solar system evolved.