By Sucheta Roy,
NASA is preparing for the first dual-satellite mission to another planet. The Escape and Plasma Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE), two identical spacecraft have been assigned to reach Mars, and are currently scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The in charge of the ESCAPADE, Berkeley, The University of California, gave the spacecraft’s onboard satellites the colours Blue and Gold. This spacecraft is going to be the first to use a new route to reach Mars.
ESCAPADE will first go to a Lagrange point where the gravitational pull of the sun and earth is equal. After that the spacecraft will return to earth in a 12-month orbit that resembles a kidney bean. It is planned for ESCAPADE to start engines in early November 2026, and slingshot around the planet, and then use that moment to travel to Mars.
Mars lost its atmosphere about four billion years ago, unlike earth. Without it, the sun’s high energy particle radiation regularly bombard the planet. The atmosphere of the earth, solar storms are severe enough to destroy electrical grids, but on Mars, they would be fatal to everyone without proper shielding.
Previous missions revealed that Mars still retains localised magnetic fields produced by its magnetic crust, though it no longer has a glass bal magnetic field like earth.
To provide a 3D view of the Martian atmosphere as it experiences gusts of solar wind that fly at a speed of millions of miles per hour, Blue and Gold will go to Mars together, but will depart on different orbits.