JAXA is about to perform a Phobos sample return mission
science.org59 points by Muhammad523 3 days ago
59 points by Muhammad523 3 days ago
Nice. These missions that tell us the basics about objects in the Solar System are more useful than, say, re-visiting the moon or Mars.
Venus and Europa could use some attention. Anything underway?
Europa clipper launched 2 years ago arrives in 2030. DAVINCI, a Venusian probe, is slated net 2033
Apparently five Venus missions (DAVINCI, VERITAS, Envision, Venus Life Finder, and Venus Orbiter) all in the next five years or so: https://www.space.com/astronomy/venus/these-5-venus-missions...
For Europa, Europa Clipper Mission (already on the way): https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/mission-time...
... and JUICE (already on the way): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice
There might be others, those are just what I found in a quick search.
I hope they make some photos of Phobos monolith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobos_monolith
JAXA does great work, they also publish the highest resolution open access global surface elevation model. Really impressive for a country with about 1/10th the GDP of the US.
I wonder how this mission compares in scale to the JAXA Hayabusa comet interceptor done twenty years ago.