The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Chiba Institute of Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University, and Tokyo Pharmaceutical University have conducted scientific research on the assessment of microbial contamination of Mars satellites, and based on the results of this study, JAXA's Martian Moons eXQ plan ( It has been internationally agreed that Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) will be carried out with the same level of planetary protection policy as "Hayabusa2".
There are rules (planetary protection policy) that each country concerned must follow when conducting space exploration.It is an international standard guideline to prevent celestial bodies from being contaminated by organic components and microorganisms from the earth and to protect the biosphere from extraterrestrial life and life-derived substances.
However, the celestial bodies subject to the current planetary protection policy do not include the Mars satellite.It is said that unknown microorganisms may still be alive on Mars, and it is undeniable that Mars material may be carried to Mars satellites. In MMX planned by JAXA as a next-generation sample return mission following "Hayabusa2", the probability that microorganisms will be included in the sample recovered from the Martian satellite in order to conduct exploration with the same level of planetary protection policy as "Hayabusa2" However, it was necessary to show that it was below the internationally agreed upper limit (one millionth).
The research team addressed this issue and first estimated the distribution of microorganisms that could have been carried from Mars to the Moons of Mars within the last 500 million years.Based on this result, we calculated the probability that living microorganisms will be collected when using the core-type sand layer collection system planned by MMX, and considered various computational indeterminacy. However, it was shown that there is a 99% chance that the recovered sample will contain microorganisms in less than one-millionth.
The results of this study, which scientifically demonstrated the safety of Martian moons eXQ, were accepted by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and accepted as a recommendation to MMX.Since the Mars satellite has important significance as a candidate base for manned exploration on Mars in the future, it can be said that it will contribute to full-scale exploration of Mars.