Japan to launch world-first mission to collect samples from Martian moon - The Guardian

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is set to launch a spacecraft on the world's first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is set to launch a spacecraft on the world’s first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars. Scientists hope the mission, which is expected to take five years, will provide clues to how Phobos and its smaller sibling Deimos formed, and hopefully even shed light on the origins of life in the solar system.

A Japanese space mission is about to launch towards Mars. But it will not land on the planet itself. Instead, the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission will focus on Phobos, the bigger of Mars’s two small moons. The mission will lift off on Monday October 19 at 20:41 BST on an H3 rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center, in the south of Japan.

Saudi Arabia, represented by the Saudi Space Agency (SSA) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), has launched the first biological samples of their kind from the Middle East to space as part of the BioGravity-1 mission aboard SpaceX CRS-35 to the International Space Station, with support from NASA, Saudi Press Agency reported. The launch is part of a long-term research program supporting scientific efforts against Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis through three consecutive missions. The milestone strengthens the Kingdom's role in microgravity research and expands the use of space science and technology in health and life sciences research.