Japan's MMX mission will attempt to land on Phobos and bring Martian moon samples back to Earth

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Something to look forward to: Japan plans to send a spacecraft to Phobos in 2026 to collect material from the small Martian moon and return it to Earth. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, is scheduled to launch from Tanegashima Space Center on Oct. 20, 2026. If the mission succeeds, the spacecraft will bring back at least 10 grams of material from Phobos, making it the first mission to return samples from a moon orbiting Mars.

MMX is expected to take about a year to reach Mars. It will then spend three years operating around the planet and its moons before beginning a roughly one-year trip back to Earth. The sample return is expected in 2031.

Landing on Phobos will be one of the mission's biggest challenges....

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