Announcement of Opportunity for

Membership of the Science Board of the

Martian Moons Exploration Mission (MMX)

 


The outcome of this Announcement of Opportunity was that the following scientist was appointed as Member of the Science Board of MMX:

Katharina Otto, Institute of Space Research, DLR, Berlin, Germany

 

22 July 2025

Through this Announcement of Opportunity (AO) the European Space Agency (ESA) solicits proposals for membership of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission Science Board, a high-level team of scientists responsible for the overall science management of the MMX mission. In 2019, a first AO resulted in the selection of two scientists. By July 2024, one of these positions became vacant, prompting the issuance of the current call to appoint a new member.

The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is a JAXA-led mission that will fly to Phobos and Deimos, and will sample > 10 g of material from the surface of Phobos for return to Earth.

The key scientific goals of MMX are:

  • To reveal the origin of Mars’ moons, and to improve our understanding of planetary system formation and of primordial material transport around the border between the inner and outer regions in the early Solar System.
  • To observe processes that have impact on the evolution of the Mars system and to advance our understanding of Mars’ surface environmental transition.

The mission will build on the technical and operational experience that JAXA has developed in the field of sample return from small bodies with the Hayabusa missions. The MMX mission is planned to be launched in October 2026.

As a result of this AO, ESA will select up to one member of the MMX Science Board. The AO is open to scientists affiliated with institutions in the ESA Member States. The appointment will be ad personam.

An invitation from the ESA Director of Science to respond to this Announcement of Opportunity can be found in the right-hand menu.

Full details of the appointment requirements and conditions, the required contents and format of the proposal, and the evaluation criteria are given in the Announcement of Opportunity document.

 

Proposal submission form

Proposals in PDF format must be submitted using the Proposal Submission Page, before the deadline of 16 September 2025, 12:00 (noon) CEST.

 

Schedule

 

The schedule for this AO is given in the table below:

Event

 Date
Date of AO release 22 July 2025
Due date for proposals 16 September 2025, 12:00 (noon) CEST
Appointment of selected candidate Q4 2025

 

Contact

Further queries should be addressed to:

Yannis Zouganelis
Solar System Science Coordinator
Directorate of Science
ESA/ESAC - Madrid, Spain
E-mail: Yannis.Zouganelis@esa.int

and

Elliot Sefton-Nash
MMX ESA Project Scientist
Directorate of Science
ESA/ESTEC - Noordwijk, The Netherlands
E-mail: Elliot.Sefton-Nash@esa.int

 

Last updated: 22 July 2025

 

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