The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has teamed up with the national broadcaster NHK on a new project that is literally alien. As part of a mission called Martian Moons Exploration (MMX), the organization plans to equip a space probe with an 8K camera, offering ανθρωπότητα a more detailed picture of Mars (also known as the Red Planet) and its moons than we have seen so far.
The goal of the MMX mission is to clarify the origin of the moons (Phobos and Deimos) and the evolutionary process of the Mars system. All this will be done in orbit around the red planet and observing both moons, before finally landing on Phobos and collecting sand, which will be sent back to Earth.
The built-in 8K and 4k cameras will capture all the details in high resolution photos. But the question remains: how?
While equipping a spacecraft with an 8K camera is no big deal, no one has done it yet because archives they are just too big. The distance between Earth and Mars ranges from at least 33,9 million miles to 250 million miles - from this distance, sending a few megabytes is a technological marvel.
During the mission, the probe will send only a few images, which will be used mainly to orient the spacecraft. Then, after the collection is completed photos and sand from Phobos, the full resolution videos will be sent back to Earth in a specialized "return capsule".
Unfortunately, this does not mean that we will not see 8K images of Mars or its moons any time soon. Not only will the mission itself not begin before 2024 - reaching the red planet in 2025 - but it will take four years for the capsule to return to Earth.
According to overview of the above shipping, published by Parabolic Arc, the capsule will leave Mars in 2028 and will eventually reach Earth around September 2029, meaning we will see this material in about ten years.
The long wait may be necessary. By 2029, most of us may actually have televisions, monitors and graphics cards capable of displaying 8K shots.
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