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The ESCAPADE Mars mission will consist of two identical satellites – “Blue” and “Gold” – which will study how the ionosphere and the planet’s magnetic field interact. (Image courtesy Rocket Lab)
An interplanetary mission led by the University of California at Berkeley, to put two satellites – dubbed “Blue” and “Gold” – into orbit around Mars has been officially authorized to prepare for launch in October 2024.
NASA’s announcement last week means that by 2026, the spacecraft will likely explore the atmosphere of the Red Planet and its interaction with the solar wind.
Called the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, it is the culmination of two years of intense work by scientists at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) to show that this relatively inexpensive spacecraft – it will cost less than $ 80 million to design, build, test, integrate and launch – can be assembled in no time to explore other planets. Typical NASA planetary missions often require more than a decade of preparation and can cost over a billion dollars.
“GETAWAY and two other recently approved NASA missions are experiments to see if advancements in the space industry over the past five to 10 years can translate into much better science-per-dollar value for money.” said Chef de Mission Robert Lillis, SSL Associate Director for Planetary Science and Astrobiology. “Sending two spacecraft to Mars for a total cost of less than $ 80 million is simply unheard of, but the current leadership of NASA is taking the risk. “
The UC Berkeley team will work with Rocket Lab, a space contractor based in Long Beach, Calif., Who will provide two Photon spacecraft to house and support the instruments. Academic / industry collaboration is one example of what NASA hopes to encourage with its Innovative Small Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEX) program, designed to fund compelling planetary space science with small satellites and provide more opportunities for flight experience to the scientific community.
These missions represent “a new, higher risk, high reward way of doing things,” said Lillis. “Instead of spending $ 800 million for 95% chance of success, can we spend $ 80 million for 80% chance? That’s what NASA is trying to find out with these missions, and we’re lucky to be one of the guinea pigs. “
The twin ESCAPADE satellites are expected to arrive on Mars in 2026, where they will circle the planet in complementary orbits to sample hot ionized plasma (cut in yellow and green) and magnetic fields (blue lines) to understand how the atmosphere of Mars escapes into space. (Image UC Berkeley courtesy of Robert Lillis)
The objective of the mission is to collect data that could help reconstruct the climatic history of Mars and determine how and when it lost its atmosphere, which was once dense enough to allow the flow of water, y including rivers, lakes and possibly oceans. GETAWAY will also study the Mars ionosphere, which can interfere with radio communications on the surface and between Earth and Mars settlers.
“With simultaneous two-point observations of the solar wind and the ionosphere and magnetosphere of Mars, ESCAPADE will bring us the first ‘stereo’ image of this highly dynamic plasma environment,” said Lillis.
“This constellation of two satellites on Mars will answer big questions about the atmosphere and the solar wind in real time,” said Shannon Curry, project scientist for the mission at UC Berkeley.
Rocket Lab, which partnered with UC Berkeley in June, has been building rockets and spacecraft platforms since 2006 for civilian, defense and commercial customers. NASA evaluated the preliminary design and project plan for the mission and determined last week that UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab had met all the milestones – called key decision points – needed to prepare for launch. The next steps include the final mission design and the construction of the instruments.
“GETAWAY is an innovative mission that demonstrates that advanced interplanetary science is now within reach at a fraction of traditional costs, and we are proud to make this possible with Photon,” said Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Peter Beck in a press release. “Crossing the key decision point is a critical step in the development of ESCAPADE and is a testament to the world-class scientific and technical work of the UC Berkeley and Rocket Lab teams. We are delighted to receive the green light from NASA to proceed with the flight. “
The mission draws on decades of experience at SSL in building satellite instruments and fleets of spacecraft to explore regions around the Earth, Moon and Mars, specializing in magnetic field interactions with the wind particles of the sun. Each of the two satellites, named after the UC Berkeley school colors, will carry instruments built at SSL to measure the flow of high-energy electrons and ionized oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules s escaping from Mars, magnetic field detectors built at UCLA and a probe to measure slower or thermal ions built at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
With twin satellites, it is possible to measure conditions simultaneously at two locations around the planet, Lillis said, allowing scientists to connect the conditions of plasma at one site to the flow of escaping ions at another. During the mission, the two satellites will change position to map the upper atmosphere and the magnetosphere of almost the entire planet at an altitude between 150 and 10,000 kilometers.
When selected by NASA in 2019 to receive $ 8.3 million for a concept design, ESCAPADE was to be grafted aboard a rocket that launched another mission, called Psyche, in August 2022. But this opportunity evaporated when the launcher was changed, and NASA looked for another option. The agency ultimately decided to launch ESCAPADE as a secondary payload aboard a different, yet to be selected, commercial rocket.
“For GETAWAY, we are evaluating a number of carpooling options to enable this critically important science while reducing costs,” said Alan Zide, program director for the mission at NASA Headquarters, in a statement. blog post on the NASA website.
As a result, although the instruments remain unchanged, they must be reconfigured to accommodate the Photon platform.
“The instruments haven’t changed, the science goals haven’t changed, but everything from the launch pad to orbit in space is completely different,” said Lillis. “We’re going with a brand new contractor, a different propulsion system, and a much shorter mission plan to get to Mars.”
The journey to Mars will last approximately 11 months, after which Blue and Gold will go their separate ways and begin their mission.
Lillis said his reaction to the NASA move was “just unbridled joy and happiness,” but admitted he won’t be quiet until early 2026, “when we get our first data to orbit around. March”.
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