Colloquium Antonella Barucci – The JAXA sample return MMX (Martian Moon eXploration) mission

The JAXA MMX mission will be launched in 2026 to Martian system to carry out three years observations of the Martian moons, and to bring back  to Earth in 2031 samples (>10 g) from Phobos. The spacecraft will arrive at Mars system in 2027, injected into Phobos co-orbit, to observe Phobos and monitor Mars’ atmosphere. Deimos will be also explored by several  fly-bys.

The mission is devoted to study the origin of Martian moons, to enlarge the knowledge of the Martian system and to assess the possibility of Martian life,.
The major goals of the mission  are to decipher the origins of the Martian moons and constrain processes for planetary formation and material transport in the region connecting the inner and outer Solar System. From the Martian moon Phobos, MMX will investigate the transport of water and organic materials across the Solar System and explore how life and habitable environments were created. The mission will clarify the driving mechanism of the transition of the Mars-moon system and add new knowledge to the evolution history of Mars.

An imager spectrometer MIRS (MMX Infrared Spectrometer) has been requested to our team at LESIA-Paris Observatory to accomplish several of the science objective of the mission.
The status of art of the mission will be presented.