Image caption, The spacecraft will head to Mars's larger moon, Phobos A space mission is set to launch on Monday that will attempt to grab a piece of Mars' moon Phobos and bring it back to Earth. If it is successful, this will become the first time a sample has been returned from Mars or its moons to be analysed in laboratories here on Earth. The spacecraft will blast off from Japan and arrive at Phobos in August 2027. It is hoped that the Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, which is led by the Japanese Space Agency, will solve the mystery of how Mars's moons formed. Prof Sara Russell, from the Natural History Museum, who is the MMX mission's deputy for sample analysis, said: There hasn't yet been a successful mission to go to Phobos and bring a bit back to Earth.

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Say More Versus Trending Now Look Up In My Bag Mashable @Home Top creators, ranked Creator Playbook AI at School All Series Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds . Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for in Norfolk, Virginia, and in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won National Headliner Awards, including first place for her Sex in Space series.

The mission to Phobos, Japan's first Mars probe launch in 28 years, may reveal new information about our closest planetary neighbor. The Japanese space probe will land on the moon Phobos. A Mars probe from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) may answer some longstanding questions about the Red Planet and its moons. The mission--dubbed MMX for "Martian Moons eXploration"--aims to collect at least 10 grams of samples from Phobos, one of two moons orbiting the planet, and if successful, these will be the first rocks from a Martian moon ever brought to Earth. They won't arrive quickly, however.

Today I'm pleased to present to readers what's next up in our series featuring author Richard Abbott, whose space jaunts have so delighted me--and many others. Of course, I'd previously reviewed Abbott's debut sci-fi novel, Far from the Spaceports, followed up by another for its sequel, Timing. The audio excerpts below come from the second novel and, like our previous entry, utilize Amazon's Polly software, which is enabled for text-to-speech in multiple accents and intonations. This compares to Alexa, a single voice. Before moving forward, for those unfamiliar with the novels and their plots, I've linked the book covers to their respective Amazon blurbs.

March 3, 2017 --On March 6, NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter is expected to cross paths with the Red Planet's moon Phobos. At first, computer models showed the two satellites missing each other by just seven seconds. Mission controllers decided that was too great a risk for the $671 million spacecraft, whose name stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. So, on Tuesday, they fired its rocket engine enough to increase its velocity by 0.4 meters per second. Controllers say that small correction will yield a safe 2.5 minutes between MAVEN and Phobos on the 6th.