Japan launches first mission to return samples from Mars’ moon Phobos2026-10-19JAXA successfully launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft from Tanegashima, Japan.The mission aims to land on Phobos, deploy the French-German Idefix rover and collect at least 10 grams of material.If successful, MMX will return the samples to Earth in 2031, with the capsule set to land in Australia.Scientists hope the samples will help explain how Phobos and Deimos formed, including whether they are remnants of a collision or captured asteroids.Japan launches spacecraft to Mars' moon in mission to bring back soil samples (PBS NewsHour)Japan launches unprecedented mission to bring back samples from Mars' moon Phobos (Euronews)मंगलको चन्द्रमाबाट नमुना ल्याउन जापानको ऐतिहासिक अभियान (Nagarik News)Mars'ın gizemli uydusunu keşfedecek (Habertürk)Espace : qu’est-ce qu’Idéfix, le rover franco-allemand qui s’envole vers Mars ? (La Croix)Jepun lancar kapal angkasa ke bulan planet Marikh (Kosmo!)Japan to launch historic round-trip mission to Mars moon (Bangkok Post)اليابان تطلق مسبارا لجمع عينات من أحد قمري المريخ (Alyaoum24)