Japan has launched a spacecraft on a five-year mission to explore Mars’ two moons and bring back samples from Phobos, the larger of the pair.

Japan launched an uncrewed spacecraft toward the Martian moon Phobos on Tuesday (October 20) on a mission intended to become the first to collect samples from the small rocky body and return them to Earth for analysis.

NASA contributed to this first-of-its-kind mission that may help us understand how our solar system formed.

Japan launched an uncrewed spacecraft toward the Martian moon Phobos on Tuesday on a mission ​intended to become the first to collect samples ‌from the small rocky body and return them to Earth for analysis.