IDEFIX - The MMX Phobos Rover: One year before launch

Abstract

The Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) mission by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, is going to explore the martian moons Phobos and Deimos. Both moons will be investigated remotely from the mother spacecraft, that will also collect samples from the surface of Phobos. There will also be a small rover, IDEFIX, which will be delivered to Phobos´ surface and make in-situ investigations. The Rover carries a scientific payload of four instruments: RAX, a Raman spectrometer, NavCam, a stereo pair of cameras looking ahead to image the terrain and also support navigation, miniRAD, a radiometer, and two WheelCams looking at the wheel-surface interface, and thus investigating the properties and dynamics of the regolith. The camera pairs will serve for both, technological and scientific needs [1,2]. The Rover is a contribution by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with additional contributions from INTA and Univ. Valladolid (Spain) and Univ. Tokyo and JAXA.