The MMX Sampler for Phobos Sample Return Mission

Abstract

The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch in 2024 and aims to be the world's first mission to return a sample from Phobos. For this, JAXA is developing the MMX sampler. There is a special interest in developing the corer shooting mechanism (C-Sampler) to acquire regolith, a robotic arm to position the core sampler and transfer the acquired regolith, and a sample transfer mechanism to move the regolith to a sample return capsule. This paper reports the system design of the MMX Sampler as well as the results of the tests for the corer sampling mechanism and the regolith conditions needed for effective penetration.