Media are invited to join NASA for a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 15, to preview the agency\u2019s contributions to JAXA\u2019s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission. The mission is scheduled to launch from JAXA\u2019s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, Oct. 19 EDT (Tuesday, Oct. 20 JST).<\/p>\n
Audio of the media teleconference will stream on the agency\u2019s website at:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/live<\/a><\/p>\n Participants in the briefing, who will provide an overview of the mission and NASA\u2019s contributions, include:<\/p>\n Lindsay Hays, acting director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington Media interested in participating by phone must RSVP no later than two hours prior to the start of the teleconference to Molly Wasser at molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov<\/a>. A copy of NASA\u2019s media accreditation policy<\/a> is online.\u00a0<\/p>\n The MMX spacecraft will arrive at Mars in August 2027 to begin its survey of the Red Planet\u2019s two moons, Phobos and Deimos. After surveying Phobos in detail, the spacecraft will collect a sample of the moon\u2019s surface no earlier than December 2028 and deliver it to Earth in 2031. NASA\u2019s contributions to the mission include the MEGANE gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, the spacecraft\u2019s surface sampler mechanism, and communications and navigation support from the agency\u2019s Deep Space Network<\/a>, as well as funding United States scientists participating on the MMX science team.<\/p>\n The MEGANE instrument was developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, developed the spacecraft\u2019s pneumatic sampler mechanism. NASA\u2019s contributions to the MMX mission were funded by the agency\u2019s Discovery Program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for high-value, focused planetary science investigations. The Discovery Program is managed by NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.<\/p>\n For more information about the MMX mission, visit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/mmx\/<\/a><\/p>\n -end-<\/p>\n Karen Fox \/ Alana Johnson
\nTom Statler, MMX program executive and scientist, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
\nDavid Lawrence, MEGANE (Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma-rays and Neutrons) principal investigator, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
\nKris Zacny, vice president, Blue Origin\u2019s Honeybee Robotics<\/p>\n
Headquarters, Washington
240-285-5155 \/ 202-672-4780
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov<\/a> \/ alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Media are invited to join NASA for a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Oct. 15, to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,2725,489006,54072,128,18367,285],"class_list":["post-921125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mars","tag-martian-moon-exploration-mmx","tag-planetary-science-division","tag-science","tag-science-mission-directorate","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}