BUSAN, South Korea — NASA’s small satellite mission to Mars remains on track to launch this fall, although a specific launch date has yet to be set.
In a presentation at Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) 45Number The Escape Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer (ESCAPADE) mission is scheduled to launch within the next few months on the maiden flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, Rob Lillis of the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Institute said at a science conference here on July 15.
ESCAPADE carries two identical small satellites called Blue and Gold that will be placed into orbit around Mars. The spacecraft is equipped with instruments to study the Martian magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind.
The spacecraft, built by Rocket Lab, are nearly ready to launch. The Blue spacecraft has completed environmental testing, and the Gold is undergoing final vibration testing. “After years of work, it’s really exciting to finally see these two spacecraft come together,” he said.
The launch of ESCAPADE has arguably attracted more attention than the mission itself: the spacecraft is scheduled to launch on New Glenn’s inaugural flight. Task order awarded by NASA in February 2023 It’s worth $20 million.
However, the exact launch date for this mission is unclear. At a meeting of the COSPAR Planetary Protection Committee in April, NASA officials announced the launch date for ESCAPADE is September 29th.. ESCAPADE website He also mentioned a September 29th release date, but added that this is just a “tentative” date.
Lillis would only say that the mission is scheduled to launch this fall, adding that a September launch date shown on one slide was “outdated.” Mars mission launch windows this year run roughly through mid-October.
“We don’t know yet” a specific launch date for the mission, he said later in the speech, adding that he was working closely with Blue Origin on launch preparations.
Once Escapade launches this fall, the probes will arrive at Mars in September 2025, spaced 48 hours apart, before beginning their year-long primary science mission in April 2026. Lillis said he hopes the probe will work in tandem with several other Mars rovers from NASA and other agencies, ushering in a “golden age” of studying the Martian magnetosphere.
ESCAPADE is also a test of the ability of small, low-cost spacecraft to conduct science missions outside Earth. NASA selected ESCAPADE in 2019 as part of its SIMPLEx line of planetary science smallsatellite missions, along with Janus and Lunar Trailblazer. However, Janus was shelved after its launch was delayed when it failed to reach its planned asteroid flyby target with its piggyback payload from the Psyche mission. Lunar Trailblazer is now scheduled to launch later this year as a piggybacker for Intuitive Machines’ second lander.
“This is an experiment by NASA to reduce the cost of planetary exploration missions. Can we do a mission for roughly one-tenth of what NASA has spent, and what risks are we taking by doing that? NASA is very interested in the answer to that question.”
