#sample return

Content tagged "sample return".

2 items (2 articles, 0 stories)

A Spacecraft Is Closing In on an Asteroid That Might Be a Piece of the Moon

June 6, 2026

In July 2026, China's Tianwen-2 probe will rendezvous with Kamo'oalewa — a 40–100 m rock that follows Earth around the Sun. Could it be a fragment blasted off the lunar surface, or just a regular space rock that happened to wander close? SORABUMI breaks it down.

Our Solar System Family #Tianwen-2#Kamo'oalewa#quasi-satellite#asteroid#sample return#Moon#space exploration

Bringing Back Sand from Phobos — The Martian Mysteries JAXA's MMX is Built to Solve

April 16, 2026

Launching in autumn 2026, JAXA's MMX will be humanity's first mission to retrieve samples from a Martian moon. Why target a moon instead of Mars itself, and what can 10 grams of sand actually tell us? We dig into the century-old debate between the capture hypothesis and the giant-impact hypothesis.

Our Solar System Family #MMX#Phobos#Mars#JAXA#sample return#Hayabusa