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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.
Buc, France – October 20, 2026 – Yesterday evening (October 19, 2026, 21:41 CEST) MMX (Mars Moons eXploration) mission successfully took off from Tanegashima Space Center aboard a H3 rocket.
Space exploration is entering an ambitious new era, with scientific missions pushing further into the deep space environment to uncover the origins of our solar system. At the forefront of this effort is the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, an international endeavor led by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) alongside key partners including CNES, DLR, ESA, and NASA. Designed to explore Mars’s moons, Phobos and Deimos, and return the very first samples from Phobos back to Earth, MMX represents a major technological and scientific leap forward.
The primary objective of the MMX mission is to explore both Martian moons and bring at least 10 grams of surface material from Phobos back to Earth. Collecting samples from a celestial body with microgravity requires extreme precision. To ensure the main spacecraft can land safely to perform its collection maneuvers, it will first deploy Idefix, a joint Franco-German rover developed by CNES and DLR, directly onto the surface of Phobos.
We are proud to be part of this key mission by contributing, among other products, with our IRIS cameras taking flight into space for the very first time. Boarding the 25-kilogram Idefix rover, four of our IRIS cameras are heading toward Phobos, marking an exciting milestone for our entire imaging product line.
Navigating a rover in an environment where gravity is less than 1/1,000th of Earth’s presents unprecedented challenges. To move, evaluate terrain, and capture crisp visuals, Idefix relies on four integrated IRIS cameras.
Our IRIS units serve as the primary vision system for the rover, handling two essential roles:
Autonomous Navigation: Providing high-contrast, precise surface imaging that enables the rover to evaluate obstacles, plan movement paths, and maneuver safely across Phobos’s uncharted regolith.
Scientific Surface Imaging: Capturing high-resolution visual data of the moon’s soil structure, texture, and physical characteristics to help scientists back on Earth better understand the origin and evolution of the Martian moon system.
Seeing IRIS chosen for a deep-space exploration mission of this scale validates the engineering rigor and continuous innovation behind our vision systems. Securing flight heritage on a landmark mission like MMX proves that IRIS meets the highest standards for mission-critical applications.
As the MMX mission prepares for this extraordinary journey into the unknown, we are thrilled to see our technology play a role in expanding humanity’s understanding of the solar system. We wish the entire international team behind MMX every success, and we cannot wait to witness the groundbreaking discoveries and initial images that this pioneering expedition will bring back from Phobos.
Photo credits: CNES
