UPDATE / EDITOR’S NOTE: This is also cross-posted elsewhere both because the Japanese will reach Mars (likely flawlessly) perhaps a full decade ahead of old Elon’s SpaceX, and they will do real exo-planetary science without ever endangering a space crew — in the punishing radiation outside our magnetosphere. Listen up, Elon — no need for boots on Mars!

We will keep an eye on this launch date — and offer a stream, if available, out of Tanegashima Space Center that day/night.

This is the way the best of science — on all fronts — advances, most friction-free: with goodwill, and open cooperation — not reclusive, ultra competitve, zero sum games, pitting nation against nation — and treating scientists as mere pawns.

So we certainly applaud JAXA and NASA, today. Here’s the good news:

…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 (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission.

The mission is scheduled to launch from JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, Oct. 19 EDT (Tuesday, Oct. 20 JST)….

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’s Deep 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….

Now you know. Much fun ahead, as we build… a yard-sized haunted house for the grand-nieces, and their dozens of neighborhood / school-friends. To be certain, we will need every spare hour, over the next 18 days. [What on Earth have we taken on?!] Heh!

नमस्ते