The unmanned Martian Moons eXploration, set to blast off from Tanegashima Space Center in the coming months, could also lay the groundwork for humans visiting the red planet. The spacecraft, revealed to the media onThursday, will stay in Mars' orbit for around three years and will attempt to land on Phobos. It will collect at least 10 grams (0.35 ounces) of material from the surface of Phobos, while the IDEFIX rover -- the French name for comic hero Asterix's dog -- will conduct surface observations. The spacecraft will also observe Demios, the other of Mars' moons -- but without landing -- before a return capsule heads back to Earth to land in Australia in around 2031. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency hopes that the mission will reveal how Mars and its moons formed, a key piece of knowledge in working out how the Solar System was born. One theory for the origin of the Martian moons -- the "giant impact" hypothesis -- is that they formed after a celestial body collided with Mars. The "capture" hypothesis meanwhile postulates that the moons are asteroids from the outer Solar System that were captured by Mars' gravity. (Bssnews)