On November 13, the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamic Explorers (EscaPADE) mission was launched into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
EscaPADE is a NASA mission made up of two identical spacecraft, each roughly a meter in size, called Blue and Gold. Its mission is to investigate the magnetic and plasma environment surrounding Mars.
Scientists aim to understand how Mars’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind—the constant flow of high-energy charged particles from the Sun—and how this interaction impacts the planet’s atmosphere.
Unlike Earth, where a strong magnetic field deflects most of the solar wind, Mars’s weak and patchy magnetic field is much less effective, allowing the solar wind to directly affect its atmosphere and gradually strip it away over millions of years.
The overarching goal of the mission is to shed light on the mysterious history of Mars, particularly regarding its water.
A Thin or Sparse Atmosphere
After billions of years of solar wind, Mars now has a very thin atmosphere, roughly 150 times less dense than Earth’s. The surface air pressure is so low that liquid water cannot exist and either evaporates, freezes, or both.
Today, there are no rivers or lakes on Mars. The widespread sedimentary rocks and clay minerals, formed only in liquid water, indicate the planet once had significant water.
This suggests Mars once had a thicker atmosphere capable of supporting liquid water, emphasizing the need to understand its loss.
Detecting and Analyzing Magnetic Fields
Blue and Gold carry magnetometers to measure Mars’s magnetic field and instruments to detect the energy and density of surrounding ions and plasma.
Following an 11-month journey to Mars, the spacecraft will conduct a year-long scientific mission, gathering data around the planet.
Ingeniously, they will share the same orbit for six months, allowing measurements from the same magnetosphere region.
Afterward, they will move into separate orbits, allowing simultaneous measurements of different and more distant regions of the magnetosphere.
Plan A, B or C
That was the original plan. NASA initially planned to launch in October 2024, but delays with the New Glenn rocket postponed the mission.
Because Earth and Mars are constantly in motion, spacecraft can only be launched directly between the two planets during specific times, called launch windows.
November 2025 isn’t a Mars launch window, but budget risks pushed NASA to adopt an unconventional plan.
Blue and Gold will remain near the L2 point, 1.5 million km from Earth, until late 2026. Once the Mars launch window opens, they will fly past Earth and continue toward the Red Planet.
New Glenn is Large
The second test flight of Blue Origin’s gleaming New Glenn rocket was thrilling.
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin runs New Shepard space tourism missions, flying the rocket shaped like a giant eggplant.
For the past decade, the company has quietly developed New Glenn, a 100-meter rocket for carrying satellites and spacecraft into orbit and beyond.
Measuring seven meters in diameter and capable of lofting 45 tonnes into low Earth orbit, New Glenn is wildly overpowered for the two 500kg spacecraft of the EscaPADE mission.
To truly grasp its scale, imagine it next to a group of people.
With the booster’s successful landing and planned reuse, Blue Origin aims to become a stronger contender in the commercial satellite launch industry—a market currently led by SpaceX.
For your Information
The New Shepard and New Glenn rockets are named after American astronauts. Alan Shepard, the first American in space, flew Freedom 7 on a vertical trajectory like New Shepard. John Glenn was the first American to orbit Earth on Friendship 7, mirroring the mission New Glenn is designed for.
Read the original article on: Phys.Org
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