Media are invited to join NASA for a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 15, to preview the agency’s contributions to JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration mission.
The mission is scheduled to launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, Oct. 19 EDT.
Audio of the media teleconference will stream on the agency’s website at:
https:www.nasa.gov/live
Participants in the briefing, who will provide an overview of the mission and NASA’s contributions, include:
Lindsay Hays, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington
Tom Statler, MMX program executive and scientist, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
David Lawrence, MEGANE principal investigator, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Kris Zacny, vice president, Blue Origin’s Honeybee Robotics
Media interested in participating by phone must RSVP no later than two hours prior to the start of the teleconference to Molly Wasser atmolly.l.wasser@nasa.gov.
A copy of NASA’smedia accreditation policyis online.
The MMX spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2027 to begin its survey of the Red Planet’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos.
After surveying Phobos in detail, the spacecraft will collect a sample of the moon’s surface no earlier than December 2028 and deliver it to Earth in 2031.
NASA’s contributions to the mission include the MEGANE gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, the spacecraft’s surface sampler mechanism, and communications and navigation support from the agency’sDeep Space Network, as well as funding United States scientists participating on the MMX science team.
The MEGANE instrument was developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, developed the spacecraft’s pneumatic sampler mechanism.
NASA’s contributions to the MMX mission were funded by the agency’s Discovery Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for high-value, focused planetary science investigations.
The Discovery Program is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
https:science.nasa.gov/mission/mmx/
Karen Fox / Alana JohnsonHeadquarters, Washington240-285-5155 / 202-672-4780karen.c.fox@nasa.gov/alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
Martian Moon Exploration
Mars
Planetary Science Division
Science Mission Directorate