The spacecraft will venture to what has been dubbed one of the 'most important unclimbed mountains in the solar system.'
Japan's space agency has greenlighted an ambitious mission to retrieve a piece of Mars' moon Phobos.
Phobos, one of the two small moons of Mars, could eventually break apart and encircle the planet.
Astronauts on a manned mission to Mars could first use its moon Phobos as a staging area.
A NASA sponsored mission concept aims to send humans to explore Phobos within the next 11 years.