This month, three different Mars probes left for the red planet, including the UAE’s Hope Mars Mission and China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe and rover, with the U.S. Perseverance rover to follow later this week. But why is everyone launching a Mars mission now? Has there been a sudden boom in Mars exploration?
A key question for the Martian Moons eXploration mission is how the two moons of Mars were formed. Competing theories suggest that the satellites are either captured asteroids or that they were formed during a giant impact with the red planet
Have you ever wished you could build your own Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft at home? We felt the same!
Organics have been found in a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite, supporting the idea that water once flowed over Mars’s surface. Further hints to the red planet’s habitable past may be collected by the MMX spacecraft, having been deposited on the surface of Phobos during Mars’s history.
This afternoon (19 February 2020), the MMX mission transitioned to become a JAXA Project: an official step in mission development authorised by the Japanese government. The mission was previously in the Pre-Project phase, where the focus was on research and analysis, such as simulating landings to improve spacecraft design. The focus will now move onto the development of mission hardware and software.
I am Keisuke Sugawara from JAXA’s Research and Development Department. My research usually focusses on artificial intelligence and support for Earth satellite projects but since last autumn, I have also begun to participate in the MMX project.
8 years of exploration on Mars! What an incredible mission, @MarsCuriosity! MMX will be joining the Mars exploration fleet in the next four years and we can’t wait 🚀 💫
#CountdownToMars
Eight years ago today, I landed on Mars. Feels like only yestersol!
My exploration of the Red Planet continues (https://t.co/t55YTfoj5A), while @NASAPersevere's is about to begin. She'll #CountdownToMars and land in much the same way I did.
Did you know MMX will take a rover to Phobos, designed by @cnes and @dlr_en 🛰? Our colleagues at CNES 🇫🇷 discuss how the concept for the MMX rover was born and has developed! (Dialogue is in French, although YouTube offers an automatic translation 📢)
De Sojourner à MMX, nos experts vous racontent l'histoire des rovers martiens. Comment ont-ils évolué ? Sont-ils complémentaires ? Comment le rover MMX s'inspire-t-il de ses prédécesseurs ? Vous saurez tout sur les astromobiles ! https://t.co/svpKwsGARJ
Congratulations to #CrewDragon #Endeavour! We are excited to see you safely home and looking forward to the next launch of Crew-1, which will also carry @Astro_Soichi to the International Space Station 👨🚀✨
"To anybody who has touched Endeavour, you should take a moment to just cherish this day."
Touching words from @Astro_Doug as @AstroBehnken is safely brought out of the spacecraft. #LaunchAmerica
Congratulations to everyone on the Mars 2020 team on a successful launch! Good luck, @NASAPersevere. We cannot wait to hear what you find when you reach Mars.
Hello from space. 👋 I’m in communication with my team at @NASAJPL, who will keep me company for the long trip. #CountdownToMars
