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SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 27,185

JAXA Martian moon rovers

First tests for landing the Martian Moons eXploration Rover

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission will have a German-French rover on board when it is launched in 2024. The rover will land on the Martian moon Phobos and explore its surface for approximately three months.

http://mmx.isas.jaxa.jp/en

tahanson43206

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Registered: 2018-04-27

Posts: 12,757

Re: JAXA Martian moon rovers

For SpaceNut re #1

Glad to see this initiative to explore Phobos!

SearchTerm:Phobos Exploration Japan German French

(th)

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 4,796

Re: JAXA Martian moon rovers

Different designs

Japan is going to put a baseball-sized robot that TRANSFORMS on the moon to explore the lunar surface in 2022
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech … -2022.html

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 4,796

Re: JAXA Martian moon rovers

The Japanese startup ispace raises $46M to support planned moon missions
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/04/japan … -missions/

Japan space center joins push to settle Mars and beyond
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Scienc … and-beyond

and Japanese Mars missions?
https://twitter.com/mmx_jaxa_en/status/ … 2284678145
Phobos samples

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 4,796

Re: JAXA Martian moon rovers

Launch site = Tanegashima, MartianMoons eXploration (MMX) is a robotic space probe set for launch in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Mars' largest moon Phobos. Launch dateof September 2024 planned, it was developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)  MMX will land and collect samples from Phobos once or twice, along with conducting Deimos flyby observations and monitoring Mars' climate, it is expected to land in 2025.
Pdf files https://presse.cnes.fr/sites/default/fi … _japon.pdf , pdf http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/2813.pdf , pdf http://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/meetings/j … jimoto.pdf
NASA, ESA, and CNES are also participating in the project, and will provide scientific instruments. The U.S. will contribute a neutron and gamma-ray spectrometer called MEGANE (an acronym for Mars-moon Exploration with GAmma rays and NEutrons, which also means "eyeglasses" in Japanese)

'The German Aerospace Center is developing the MMX  Rover in collaboration with France’s CNES
! The rover is a key companion, who will land on Phobos ahead of the MMX spacecraft, explore Phobos’ surface and help with the safe landing of the spacecraft to collect samples!'
https://twitter.com/mmx_jaxa_en/status/ … 6584883204

Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-05-08 12:28:59)

Mars_B4_Moon

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Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 4,796

Re: JAXA Martian moon rovers

Biden vows to expand space cooperation with South Korea, Japan

https://spacenews.com/biden-vows-to-exp … rea-japan/

SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 27,185

Re: JAXA Martian moon rovers

Europe wants to send a 50-pound rover to a tiny, strange Solar System moon

https://www.mofa.go.jp/dns/isc/page25e_000306.html

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) will send a rover on the mission. The rover is called the MMX Rover, a small 25 kg (55 lb) wheeled vehicle that will be “dropped” on the surface of Phobos from a height of about 50 meters.

“With the MMX rover, we are breaking new ground in terms of technology because never before has an exploration vehicle with wheels traveled on a small celestial body with only one-thousandth of the Earth’s gravitational pull,” said Markus Grebenstein from the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics in Oberpfaffenhofen.

Getting the rover onto Phobos’ surface is not an ordinary landing procedure. The little vehicle will be dropped onto the moon and tumble as it falls. When it reaches the surface, it’ll need to right itself and get to work.

“As the rover free-falls onto Phobos following separation from the spacecraft, it will perform several ‘somersaults’ upon touchdown without damage and come to rest in an unpredictable position. From this situation, it must autonomously upright itself with the help of the propulsion system and unfold its solar panels,” said Grebenstein, DLR’s project manager for the MMX rover. “Finally, it will travel very carefully at only a few millimetres per second in order to retain contact with the ground with its special wheels despite the low gravity.”