2024-01-16 16:28:42
As of: 5:28 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
A model of the Mars rover “Idefix” is on display during a press conference.
Source: Lennart Preiss/dpa
Mars has two moons. These will now be examined in more detail. Also on board: a vehicle co-developed in Bremen.
The German-French rover “Idefix” to explore the Martian moon Phobos is going on its first long journey: It is heading to Japan – the rover is part of the Japanese Mars exploration mission “Martian Moons Exploration” (MMX). The rover, which was tested in Bremen and completed last July, is expected in Japan at the end of January, the German Aerospace Center said on Tuesday in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich.
The MMX mission is scheduled to start in 2026. It is expected that two years will pass before landing on Phobos. “Idefix” is the little dog that accompanies Obelix in the “Asterix” comics.
With the mission to the Mars moons Phobos and Deimos, Japan’s space agency Jaxa wants, among other things, to help decipher the mystery of how the moons form. During the mission, “Idefix” was supposed to land on Phobos for the first time in the history of space travel – that alone was an immense challenge, it was said in Oberpfaffenhofen.
The rover, which weighs just 25 kilograms, was designed and built under the joint leadership of DLR and the French space agency CNES. «Idefix essentially has all the elements of a full-fledged science rover, but with its highly integrated design it only weighs 25 kilograms. This is crucial so that it survives the impact on Phobos unscathed,” explained DLR project manager Markus Grebenstein.
The rover is supposed to explore the surface of Phobos, and the Japanese mother probe is supposed to bring soil samples back to Earth. But it is also regarding taking a closer look at technical questions, such as the movement of a rover in these spheres.
For safety reasons, the batteries are almost discharged for transport to Japan. The first task in Japan will therefore be to charge the batteries in order to maintain their performance, explained the experts in Oberpfaffenhofen. Integration of the rover into the MMX mother probe will begin in Japan from February 2024.
Japan and France are important partner countries for DLR in almost all research areas, said DLR CEO Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla. Philippe Baptiste, CEO of CNES, spoke of an important milestone in the collaboration.
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