An artist’s concept of JAXA’s MMX spacecraft at Mars. Credits: JAXA
JPL’s Abigail Fraeman will help study the composition of Phobos and Deimos using instruments on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s spacecraft.
NASA has selected 10 researchers from institutions across the U.S. to join the Science Working Team of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission as NASA-supported participating scientists.
JAXA’s MMX mission, planned to launch in 2024, will visit the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, land on the surface of Phobos, and collect a surface sample. Plans are for the sample to be delivered to Earth in 2029.
Seven of the selected scientists will conduct research using the MMX flight instruments. They are:
Three of the selected scientists will conduct laboratory analyses of the samples brought back from Phobos. They are:
In addition to the contributions of the participating scientists, and their teams of co-investigators, NASA is contributing the Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma rays and Neutrons (MEGANE) spectrograph instrument, the Pneumatic Sampler (P-Sampler) technology demonstration, and other support.
A team at Honeybee Robotics sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate designed and built the P-Sampler. MEGANE, built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, was developed under NASA’s Discovery Program. Both projects are managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
In a separate event on April 17, during the 38th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, NASA and JAXA signed an agreement to formalize their overall MMX cooperation, further strengthening the collaboration between the two agencies.
News Media Contact
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov
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