MOON -MARTIAN- MOPS : LAB SCIENCE 2026

Landing on a Martian moon : The United States and China both plan to send robotic spacecraft to collect pieces of Mars for study on Earth. But Japan might beat them at the game. Sort of.

Mars has two small moons. Phobos and Deimos, which have long fascinated scientists.

Theories about their origins vary. One holds that they are pieces of the red planet ejected into space by a collision that occurred early in the solar system's history.

Alternatively, they might be astėroids captured by Martian gravity.

Studying those moons up close, and bringing samples of them to Earth, could help sort out that mystery.

Japan's mission, called Martian Moons Explanation, or MMX, intends to do that, reaching Mars to studying the two moons, then attempting a brief landing on the larger one, Phobos, to collect samples.

Japan has completed similar missions twice with Hayabusa and Hyabusa2, with the second mission bringing material from the asteroid Ryugu to Earth in 2020.

It might try to launch MMX at the end of 2026, although a recent failed flight af H3, a Japanese rocket, could affect the launch schedule. 

The World Students Society thanks Katrina Miller and Michael Roston and The New York Times.