Japan launches spacecraft to mysterious moons of Mars

Humanity has watched Mars across generations, yet its greatest secrets remain locked in silence. Now, a Japanese space mission aims to discover the origins of Mars' two moons. The ambitious mission will include landing a rover to pick up samples from Phobos, the biggest of Mars' moons, and bring it back safely on Earth. Our next report explains the details of this fascinating space mission. We'll take a look. Night breaks over the Pacific coast. Deep rumble shudders across Tanegashima Space Center as orange fire rips through darkness. A giant rocket climbs towards deep space, bound on a voyage that tests the absolute edge of human ambition. In ten months from now, the probe will reach a world just 22 kilometers across that could rewrite the history of an entire planet. Their target are two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which circles Mars, races around the red planet faster than Mars rotates. Scientists say they may preserve evidence of a violent cosmic collision billions of years ago. If their origin is due to a giant impact, that impact will have happened on the Martian surface. It will have had a big effect on Mars' environment at the time. it will have caused you know the surface to to warm up maybe the atmosphere was modified and it would have changed you know the the surface environment and that's important because we think at some point in mars's history it was much more habitable than it is today now japan is attempting something extraordinary bringing pieces of this mysterious moon back home japan's martian moons This exploration mission, known as MMX, is designed to travel to Mars, investigate its two moons and collect samples from Phobos before returning them to Earth. The mission is a major scientific gamble, involving years of navigation, robotic operations and the carefully planned journey across millions of kilometers of space. In terms of the launch result, we believe we were able to place MMX very precisely onto the intended trajectory toward Mars. We are also delighted to have opened the first act of this historic and internationally watched MMX mission with the H3's most powerful configuration, the Type 24. Since the 1960s, dozens of missions have been aimed at Mars, but its moons, named after the sons of Greek war god Ares, who is the counterpart of the Roman war god Mars, largely remain a mystery. Japan is not starting the Mars exploration race. It is building on decades of international efforts. The United States has sent orbiters, landers and rovers to Mars, with NASA's Perseverance rover collecting samples for a possible future return to Earth. India made history in 2014 when its Mars orbiter mission reached Mars on its first attempt, becoming the first country to achieve that milestone in its maiden Mars mission. China joined the Surface Exploration Club in 2021, when its Tianwen-1 mission delivered the Zhurong rover to Mars. Now the scientific frontier is moving beyond the planet itself. Bureau Report, Weon, World at One.