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Japan launches mission to collect rocks from Mars's moon Phobos

The spacecraft, launched on Japan's H3 rocket after delays from 2024, aims to land on Phobos in 2030 and return its capsule in 2031; patience required.

On air: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on BBN Tonight
Published
Photo: Hunini · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0
▶ As it aired · Tech

Watch it as it aired: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on this story, from BBN Tonight at 9:23 PM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are The Guardian's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: H3 (rocket)
Photo: Hunini · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0

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What BBN said about it

  1. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThirty-one years of a suspect with no coffee. Fine.

  2. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentJapan launched a spacecraft this week to bring back at least ten grams of dust from Phobos, a moon of Mars.

  3. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentTen grams? That's one sugar packet. They built a rocket for a sugar packet.

  4. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe H3 rocket is two hundred seven feet tall, and the mission cost five hundred seventy-eight million dollars, according to Interesting Engineering.

  5. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe sample comes home in twenty thirty-one.

  6. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentTwenty thirty-one. I've had package tracking that took less time than that.

  7. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentAnd there's a rover, Idefix, at twenty-five kilograms. On Phobos the gravity is so weak that it weighs fifteen grams.

  8. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo the rover weighs more than the souvenir by like five grams.

  9. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentFive years, a rocket two hundred seven feet tall, and the whole payoff is a tenth of a candy bar.

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The story so far

  1. Cloud of the Week: feathery carbon dioxide clouds on Mars · commons.wikimedia.org
  2. Flower named for Messi found in Peru; Japan readies Phobos sample… · MARCA
  3. Japan's MMX mission aims to return samples from Mars moon Phobos · Space.com
  4. Swift at Chiefs game, Mars moon mission, priest killed in Ecuador · Yahoo
  5. NASA's Mars rover passes Opportunity's driving record · FOX Weather
  6. Japan launches mission to grab a piece of Mars's moon · BBC
  7. Japan launches mission to collect rocks from Mars's moon Phobos (this story)

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