Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) Mission News

The MMX Rover is undergoing tests for landing!

October 6, 2020 mmx
0 Comment
collaborations

When the MMX spacecraft leaves Earth in 2024 JFY*, it will be carrying a buddy: a rover designed to explore the surface of Phobos. The microwave-sized vehicle is being designed by the German and French space agencies, DLR and CNES. With a mass of approximately 25 kg, the rover must be both lightweight and strong. Its first test will be to survive the drop from the MMX spacecraft to the surface of Phobos, estimated to be a free-fall descent of about 40 to 100 m.

+ Read More

‘Super Hi-Vision’ cameras for MMX!

September 17, 2020 mmx
0 Comment
collaborations, instrument, JAXA

This week, JAXA and NHK announced plans to develop a camera for space that can take ultra high definition images. Two of the new “Super Hi-Vision” cameras will join the suite of instruments onboard the MMX spacecraft to record our journey to the Martian system!

+ Read More
Why is everyone launching a Mars probe now?

Why is everyone launching a Mars probe now?

July 29, 2020 mmx
0 Comment
engineering

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?

+ Read More
Will MMX find evidence that Mars once had rings?

Will MMX find evidence that Mars once had rings?

June 24, 2020 mmx
0 Comment
science

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

+ Read More
Our MMX papercraft model!

Our MMX papercraft model!

June 9, 2020 mmx
0 Comment
engineering, fun

Have you ever wished you could build your own Martian Moons eXploration spacecraft at home? We felt the same!

+ Read More
Could MMX collect organic material from Phobos?

Could MMX collect organic material from Phobos?

May 18, 2020 mmx
0 Comment
JAXA, science

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.

+ Read More