Eight days to liftoff: Japan's spacecraft sets out to bring home dust from a Martian moon

Japan's MMX spacecraft is set to launch from Tanegashima on October 19 on a five-year voyage to Mars's potato-shaped moon Phobos. It will map both Martian moons, drop the first rover ever to work on a Mars moon, and scoop up at least 10 grams of soil. If it succeeds, the capsule touching down in the Australian desert in 2031 will carry the first physical material ever brought back from the Martian system — and settle a decades-long debate over where the moons came from.