ESCAPADE<\/a>\u00a0is the first science mission to coordinate two\u00a0orbiters around Mars, gaining a perspective we\u2019ve never had before.\u00a0Together, the ESCAPADE twins will\u00a0measure short-term changes in the\u00a0magnetized environment around Mars, called the\u00a0magnetosphere, and uncover real-time processes driving the planet\u2019s atmospheric escape.<\/p>\n\u201cHaving two spacecraft is going to help us understand cause and effect \u2014 how the solar wind, when it comes to Mars, interacts with the magnetic field,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Michele Cash, ESCAPADE program scientist\u00a0at NASA Headquarters.<\/p>\n
The ESCAPADE orbiters build on earlier\u00a0Mars missions that have studied Mars’ atmosphere, but with just one spacecraft.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ESCAPADE mission is a game changer,\u201d said Rob Lillis, the mission\u2019s principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley. \u201cIt gives us what you might call a stereo perspective \u2014 two different vantage points simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once ESCAPADE reaches Mars, its twin spacecraft will follow each other\u00a0in the same orbit, passing over the same areas at different times to uncover when and where changes are happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have two spacecraft crossing those regions in quick succession, we can monitor how those regions vary on timescales as short as two\u00a0minutes,\u201d Lillis said. \u201cThis will allow us to make measurements we could never make before.\u201d<\/p>\n
After six months, the two spacecraft will shift into different orbits,\u00a0with one traveling farther from Mars and the other staying closer to it. Planned to last for five months, this second formation aims to study the solar wind and Martian magnetosphere simultaneously, allowing scientists to investigate how Mars responds to the solar wind in real time.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior spacecraft could either be in the upstream solar wind, or they could be close to the planet measuring its magnetosphere,\u201d Lillis said, \u201cbut ESCAPADE allows us to be in two places at once and to simultaneously measure the cause and the effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
When\u00a0people set foot on Mars, they will not be as well protected from solar radiation as their family and\u00a0friends on Earth.<\/p>\n
Earth can withstand\u00a0the solar wind\u2019s ceaseless onslaught because it has a hardy magnetic field that shields us from the Sun\u2019s energetic particles. However, Mars\u2019 once robust magnetic field has weakened over time. Today it\u2019s a patchwork of localized magnetism in the planet\u2019s crust along with\u00a0an ever-changing magnetic field generated by the solar wind\u2019s interaction with charged particles in Mars\u2019 upper atmosphere.<\/p>\n
This \u201chybrid\u201d magnetosphere provides\u00a0little protection against the atmosphere-stripping force of the solar wind. This, plus Mars\u2019 thin atmosphere, allows the Sun\u2019s energetic particles to easily reach the Martian surface, endangering\u00a0future human explorers there.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we send humans to Mars, we need to understand what type of environment these astronauts are going to encounter,\u201d Cash said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, ESCAPADE will provide more information about Mars\u2019 ionosphere \u2014 part of the upper atmosphere that future astronauts will use to send radio and navigation signals around the planet, as we do on Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we ever want GPS at Mars or long-distance communications, we need to understand the ionosphere,\u201d Lillis said.<\/p>\n
Previous Mars missions have launched when Earth and Mars are aligned in their orbits, which only happens every 26 months. But ESCAPADE launched early, pioneering a new strategy that allows Mars-bound spacecraft to launch almost anytime.<\/p>\n
Instead of heading directly to Mars, ESCAPADE\u2019s spacecraft are first looping around a location in space a million miles from Earth called Lagrange point 2. In November 2026, when Earth and Mars are aligned, the ESCAPADE spacecraft will return to Earth and use our planet\u2019s gravity to slingshot themselves toward Mars for a September 2027 arrival.<\/p>\n
This unique \u201cloiter\u201d orbit will extend approximately 2 million miles from our planet, making the ESCAPADE spacecraft the first to fly through a previously unexplored region of Earth\u2019s distant magnetotail, part of Earth\u2019s magnetosphere opposite the Sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be doing some discovery science,\u201d Lillis said. \u201cNo one has ever measured Earth\u2019s tail this far away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, during their 10-month cruise to Mars, ESCAPADE\u2019s two spacecraft will study solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic environment that Mars-bound astronauts will also traverse, preparing for future journeys to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n
The ESCAPADE mission is funded by NASA\u2019s Heliophysics Division and is part of the NASA Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration program.\u00a0UC Berkeley\u2019s Space Sciences Laboratory leads the mission with key partners\u00a0Rocket Lab; NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Advanced Space; and Blue Origin.<\/p>\n
by Vanessa Thomas
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mars is not what it used to be. Once warm, watery, and blanketed by a thick atmosphere, today…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[167359,6070,3882,24997,6248,111,139,69,147,392,1104,3887],"class_list":{"0":"post-306075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-escapade-escape-and-plasma-acceleration-and-dynamics-explorers","9":"tag-goddard-space-flight-center","10":"tag-heliophysics","11":"tag-heliophysics-division","12":"tag-mars","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-space","18":"tag-space-weather","19":"tag-the-sun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}