Japan's Mars moon project explained in lecture

An expert on Mars has given a lecture in central Japan to raise awareness of a Japanese project to explore one of the red planet's satellites.

The MMX, or Martian Moons eXploration probe, has been designed to land on the satellite Phobos for the first time to collect sand and bring it back to Earth. The probe is expected to be launched on board an H3 rocket on October 20.

Professor Usui Tomohiro of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency gave the public lecture on Sunday at a science museum in Niigata City.

Usui, a member of the project team, said Mars is attracting attention from the United States and China as a target of future exploration. He said there is a possibility that organic matter and water still exist on the planet. He added that Japan plans to investigate this in the 2030s.

He explained that the MMX project targets Phobos, also known as one of Mars' moons, rather than the planet itself. The project aims to shed light on the satellite's origins by bringing back samples.

Usui went on to say it has become clear that there is a one-in-1,000 chance that grains of sand from Mars could be found in the sand on the surface of Phobos. He said they were probably scattered by meteorites colliding with the planet.

He said the samples that will be brought back may contain totally unexpected substances.

A boy who went to the lecture said he does not know much about space, but he hopes the probe will be successfully launched and make headlines with new discoveries.