NASA sets out its instruments on Japan's Martian Moons eXploration mission ahead of launch
16 October 2026
NASA announced a media teleconference for 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, October 15, 2026 on its contributions to the Martian Moons eXploration mission, which is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The spacecraft is to lift off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, October 19 Eastern Daylight Time, arrive at Mars in August 2027, collect a sample from Phobos no earlier than December 2028 after a detailed survey, and return the sample to Earth in 2031. NASA is contributing MEGANE, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and a pneumatic surface sampler mechanism developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, along with Deep Space Network communications and navigation support and funding for United States scientists on the science team. David Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is the principal investigator for MEGANE.
In plain words
MEGANE Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma-rays and Neutrons — A spectrometer that reads the elements on Phobos from orbit.
Deep Space Network Deep Space Network — NASA's worldwide set of antennas that talks to distant spacecraft.
Phobos Phobos — The larger and inner of the two moons of Mars.