ESCAPADE Mission Spacecraft Beauty Passes

NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission will study the interaction between the solar wind and Martian atmosphere. Two identical spacecraft will orbit around the Red Planet to understand the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere, including its real-time response to space weather.

The mission will leverage its unique dual viewpoint on the Mars environment to explore how the solar wind strips atmosphere away from Mars to better understand how its climate has changed over time — so much that Mars no longer supports liquid water on its surface. The pair will be the first multi-spacecraft orbital science mission to Mars.

ESCAPADE is part of the NASA Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program. The mission is managed by the University of California Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, with key partners Rocket Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space LLC, and Blue Origin.

See ESCAPADE Mission Page