Tag: MMX
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Space Science in 2026: New lunar explorers, Mars missions, and space telescopes
With many missions on the manifest, the new year promises to be packed with space science. Two interplanetary spacecraft will arrive at their destinations as another Mars window opens in late 2026. Meanwhile, multiple space telescopes have their launch dates set for this year, and the schedule promises an increased cadence for lunar missions. The…
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New study provides explanation behind origins of Martian moons Phobos and Deimos
Using supercomputer simulations, a team of NASA scientists recently modeled the destruction of an asteroid around Mars to investigate the possible origins of Mars’ two, mysterious moons — Phobos and Deimos. Since their discovery in 1877 and subsequent investigations by telescopes and Martian spacecraft, scientists have pondered how the two moons came to be, and…
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IDEFIX Phobos rover sent to Japan ahead of mission to Mars
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is JAXA’s lead mission that plans to survey and explore Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos. While the Japanese agency will build the main payload, the German Space Agency (DLR) and the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) will contribute to the mission. “IDEFIX,” a small secondary payload, will…
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Japanese space science missions facing delays after H3 rocket failure
The spacecraft for the Japanese-led X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, or XRISM, undergoes acoustic testing in Japan in December 2022. Credit: JAXA The launch of a Japanese X-ray telescope and robotic lunar lander has been delayed to no earlier than August, and the launch schedule for another Japanese mission to return samples from a moon…
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MAVEN reveals Martian atmospheric time capsule on Phobos as Mars fleet prepares for arrival
Data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has revealed the unsurprising — yet previously not searched for — presence of Martian atmospheric ions preserved in the top layer of regolith on the planet’s innermost moon, Phobos. The announcement comes as an international fleet of Emirati, Chinese, and American spacecraft are set to…
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NASA confirms contribution to Japanese-led Mars mission
Artist’s concept of the MMX spacecraft at Phobos. Credit: JAXA/NASA NASA announced Thursday it will fund development of a scientific instrument that will fly on Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration mission, a robotic probe set for launch in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Mars’ largest moon Phobos. A neutron and gamma-ray spectrograph developed…