MMX mission signed by JAXA, CNES, and DLR. Germany, France, and Japan to collaborate for the Martian moon rover mission.
As part of the MMX mission, the German-French rover IDEFIX will land on the Martian moon Phobos, despite the extremely low gravity.
The Japanese MMX mother spacecraft will collect samples from Phobos and send them back to Earth.
The origin of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos is still an unsolved mystery in planetary research.
Credit DLR
At the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signed an agreement with the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the French space agency (Centre national d’études spatiales; CNES) on trilateral cooperation within the framework of the MMX mission.
Credit DLR
Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of JAXA, said:
“We are very excited to collaborate with CNES and DLR as part of the MMX mission, which endeavors to clarify the origin of the Martian moons and the evolutionary process of the Martian sphere by collecting samples from one of Mars’ two moons – Phobos – for the first time in space history. Japan shares a precious memory with France and Germany regarding the collaboration during the Hayabusa2 sample return mission, on which the joint CNES-DLR MASCOT lander flew. And we are looking forward to putting our efforts together once again for a successful MMX mission.”
source DLR
