The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Tuesday the successful launch of a spacecraft on a mission to collect samples, including rocks and sand, from one of Mars' moons, marking the first global mission of its kind.
The Japanese Kyodo News agency quoted JAXA in a statement saying that "the probe, carried on board the H3 rocket No. 10 as part of the Mars Exploration (MMX) mission, successfully separated from the rocket and was placed in its planned orbit."
Mission details and trajectory
The rocket launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Tanegashima, a small island located in southwestern Japan, early Tuesday morning. The probe will head towards Phobos, Mars' largest moon, which orbits at a distance of approximately 6,000 kilometers from the planet's surface and has a diameter between 20 and 30 kilometers.
The mission also includes observing Mars' second moon, Deimos, without landing on it, before the probe returns to Earth with the samples in July 2031.
Probe and rocket specifications
The probe, weighing 4,480 kilograms, consists of three dedicated modules for the journey to Mars, the exploration of Phobos, and the return. It has four landing legs, stands approximately 5.3 meters high, and is about 9 meters wide when its solar panels are deployed.
The H3 rocket No. 10 carrying the probe uses a dual-engine configuration and four boosters, representing the most powerful version of the rocket with the highest thrust capacity.
Launch background
The rocket was originally scheduled to launch in 2024, but the launch was postponed following the failure of the H3 rocket's first test flight the previous year.
It is worth noting that MMX is an international joint mission to investigate the origins of Mars' moons and develop technologies for future space exploration.
JAXA successfully launched an H3 rocket and placed a positioning satellite in orbit on August 11 last year, marking the second consecutive successful launch of Japan's main rocket within approximately two months.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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