Watch Japan launch the first ever Mars-bound mission designed to come back

Japan will launch the first spacecraft designed to travel to Mars and return to Earth on Monday, bringing back soil from one of the planet's potato-shaped moons .

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency , known as JAXA, leads the Martian Moons Exploration mission, or MMX, with NASA as a partner.

The rocket lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center at 3:41 p.m.

ET on Oct.

19, or 4:41 a.m.

Tuesday in Japan.

MMX should reach Mars next August and survey the planet's two small moons, Phobos and Deimos .

No earlier than December 2028, it will land on Phobos, scoop up a sample, and turn for home, reaching Earth in 2031.

"MMX will be the first spacecraft ever to return to Earth from the Mars system," said Tom Statler, NASA's program scientist for the mission.

"That says a lot." Scientists hope that the sample will reveal how the Red Planet got its moons.

Mars' gravity may have captured passing asteroids , or a large object may have slammed into Mars and blasted debris into orbit, where it clumped together into moons.

Learning which story is likely true will give scientists new insight into both Mars and Earth, including events that shaped both planets billions of years ago.

SEE ALSO: Mars without its makeup can look a little blue.

Here's why.