Japan's Mars mission plans to bring the soil samples of the red planet to Earth as early as 2029, even ahead of the United States' NASA and China's space agency.
UNSPECIFIED: In this concept illustration provided by NASA, NASA's Perseverance (Mars 2020) rover uses its drill to core a rock sample and will store them in sealed tubes on the planet's surface for future missions to retrieve in the area known as Jezero crater on the planet Mars. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.
It is worth noting that the US and China have already launched their exploration on Mars to further search for any evidence that life once existed in the Martian plant.
For instance, China's Mars rover has already concluded its 90-day mission on the Red Planet and continues to roam its rocky terrain to search for any frozen water as it remains in good condition.
Initially, the Chinese spacecraft, Zhurong, is designed to last for 90 Martian days, but it still lives on.
On the other hand, NASA's Perseverance Rover tried its first attempt to collect rock samples from the Red Planet last Aug. 7, but failed to retrieve them.
Nevertheless, the Mars rover of NASA made its second attempt to collect Martian rock samples last Aug. 20.
Japan's Mars Mission Plans to Bring Soil Samples to Earth
The space agency of the Asian country, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, also known shortly as JAXA, sets its eyes on launching its space explorer in 2024, JagranJosh reported.
After which, the Mars mission seeks to collect up to 10 grams of soil and bring it to Earth in 2029.
JAXA's mission on Mars is landing on the Martian Moon that goes by the moniker "Phobos."
Meanwhile, Japan's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science professor, Tomohiro Usui, believes that the soil on Phobos is a combination of moon and Mars components due to multiple sandstorms.
What's more, JAXA scientists further suggest that any creature that once lived on the Red Planet might have perished due to the extreme cosmic and solar radiation on Phobos.
As such, the space agency is looking into the soil samples in the location.
Japan Ahead of US and China Mars Missions
So, how is Japan getting ahead of the US and even China, even if they will start their Mars Mission later than the two countries?
According to APNews, the project manager of the Japan Mars mission, Yasuhiro Kawakatsu, said in an online news conference that JAXA's rapid return trip will bring the soil samples swifter than any other country.
It is to note that NASA's Perseverance rover will take until 2031 to bring the 31 samples that they seek to collect from Mars to Earth.
On the other hand, China estimates to bring the samples a year earlier in 2030.
It seems that JAXA is aiming to replicate its successful attempt to bring asteroid Ryugu samples to Earth last December 2020. It marks the first return of an asteroid sample in history.
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Written by Teejay Boris
