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3D PLUS has more than 220,000 microelectronics components in space, and more than 25 years of flight heritage with no reported failure. Our Flight Heritage is expanding continuously with products launched in Space every month in LEO, MEO and GEO orbits, for deep space exploration missions, for satellite constellation fleets, and for governmental missions in Europe, America, and Asia. Our Flagship missions include Mars 2020, Mars Science Laboratory, Rosetta, New Horizons, Juno, OneWeb, AlphaSat, Sentinel, Ariane 5, ISS, Parker Solar Probe, Insight, and many more.
On October 19, 2026 (CEST time), the MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan aboard a H3 rocket.
Led by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) in partnership with CNES, DLR, and NASA, MMX represents one of the most ambitious scientific endeavors of the decade. Its primary objective: to study Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two moons, in order to understand their origin and to bring samples from Phobos back to Earth for the very first time.
Discovered in 1877 by astronomer Asaph Hall, Phobos and Deimos are two small celestial bodies (approximately 22 km in diameter for Phobos and 12 km for Deimos) orbiting very close to the Red Planet. Despite decades of observations from Earth and by probes in Martian orbit (such as Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Express, or MRO), their exact nature remains one of the greatest controversies in modern planetary science:
Are they asteroids captured by Martian gravity?
Or are they the result of a giant impact between a proto-planet and Mars?
To settle this crucial question regarding the evolution of the Solar System, the MMX spacecraft will perform close-up observations using more than ten scientific instruments and will deploy the IDEFIX rover to the surface of Phobos to collect samples that will be returned to Earth. The observation and analysis of these samples will help shed light on Phobos’ composition and provide insights into the evolution of its environment and its origins.
The MMX mission is scheduled to last 5 years, featuring key milestones before returning to Earth:
A journey to Mars imposes harsh physical constraints:
To ensure the success of such a mission, the selection of onboard components relies above all on high, flight-proven reliability for space applications.
We are proud to contribute directly to the success of the MMX mission. Several of our key products were selected to equip both the spacecraft and the rover:
The selection of our products onboard the MMX mission highlights the trust leading global space agencies place in our solutions and their level of reliability when operating in the most severe environments.
We congratulate all the teams and partners on the successful launch and the high quality of work accomplished throughout the development process. This successful launch marks a major first milestone for the mission. We look forward to discovering the first scientific insights brought by the collected observations and data.
Photos credits: JAXA / NASA
