Japan launches mission to collect samples from Phobos | DW News

It's one of the strangest little worlds in our solar system: the Martian moon Phobos. Scientists still don't know whether it's a captured asteroid or debris blasted off of Mars by an ancient impact. Japan's MMX mission aims to solve that mystery by landing on Phobos and collecting samples from its surface. A small rover named Idefix will explore the terrain and help select a safe landing site. If all goes to plan, the samples will return to Earth in 2031 with clues to the origins of Mars and its moons. With insights from Joern Helbert, Head of the European Space Agency's Solar System Section.