Japan launches historic space mission to retrieve Mars' Phobos moon samples

Tokyo, Oct 20 (UNI) Japan has launched a mission aimed at becoming the first to land on one of Mars' moons and return samples from its surface to Earth. An H3 rocket carrying the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center on Monday, according to a live broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission aims to return at least 10 grams of material from Phobos by 2031, with the first landing operation planned in around two years. No spacecraft has successfully landed on either Phobos or Deimos, Mars' smaller moon. The Soviet union…