Mission blasts off to Mars to grab a piece of its moon
Japan's MMX spacecraft has launched for Phobos, Mars's larger moon, aiming to land, collect at least ten grams of moon dust and bring it back to Earth in a world first.
A Japanese spacecraft has blasted off on one of the most ambitious sample missions ever attempted: a journey to Phobos, the larger of Mars's two moons, to grab a piece of it and bring it back to Earth.
The Martian Moons Exploration mission, led by the Japanese space agency JAXA, is due to reach the Mars system in August 2027. A small rover will first scout the surface of Phobos so the main spacecraft can touch down safely despite the moon's extremely weak gravity.
Once down, a robotic arm and samplers will collect at least ten grams of dust and small rocks. Phobos is only about twenty kilometres across, and no mission has ever returned material from Mars or either of its moons before.
Scientists hope the samples, due back on Earth in 2031 with a landing in the Australian desert at Woomera, will finally answer how Mars got its moons: whether they are captured asteroids, or debris blasted off the planet by a giant impact long ago.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.