ESCAPADE Spacecraft Specifications

The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, led by Rob Lillis at UCBSSL, is a twin-spacecraft science mission that will orbit two spacecraft around Mars to understand the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of Mars' unique hybrid magnetosphere. 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.

ESCAPADE is being developed under NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program in the Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The mission is led by UCBSSL with spacecraft design provided by Rocket Lab.

The spacecraft were designed, built, integrated, and tested at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Based on Rocket Lab’s Explorer spacecraft, a configurable, high delta-V interplanetary platform, the duo features Rocket Lab-built components and subsystems, including solar panels, star trackers, propellant tanks, reaction wheels, reaction control systems, radios, and more.

See ESCAPADE Mission Homepage