posted 08-23-2024 04:50 PM               

This thread is intended for comments and questions about NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE, and the updates published under this topic.

The ESCAPADE mission comprises twin Rocket Lab Photon spacecraft that will orbit around Mars to understand the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of the planet's unique hybrid magnetosphere. The mission will launch on the first flight of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

posted 08-23-2024 04:51 PM               

Over billions of years, a relentless flow of particles from the Sun — the solar wind — has slowly stripped away the Martian atmosphere, causing surface water to evaporate. But how exactly did this happen? NASA's new ESCAPADE mission aims to find out.

Launching no earlier than Oct. 13, 2024, the Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission will be studying Mars' real-time response to the solar wind, helping us better understand Mars' climate history.

posted 07-18-2025 08:51 AM               

New Glenn’s second mission, NG-2, will send NASA’s ESCAPADE to Mars. This launch will support ESCAPADE’s science objectives as the twin spacecraft progress on their journey to the Red Planet.

Also onboard is a technology demonstration from Viasat in support of NASA Space Operations' Communications Services Project.

This will be an exciting mission for New Glenn and Mars exploration. ESCAPADE is not only New Glenn’s first interplanetary mission, it’s also the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to study the Martian magnetosphere. And, we hope to land and recover our booster for the first time. Mars, here we come. Thank you to NASA for riding with us to space.