Another Step Toward Exploring Mars: NASA’s ESCAPADE mission, which lifted off aboard a Blue Origin rocket, is unusual in almost every respect, from its concept to its launch. It will include two small satellites that will orbit Mars starting September 2027, aiming to understand how the Red Planet lost the thick atmosphere it once had.
The mission—whose name stands for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers—is designed to measure the interaction between solar winds and Mars’ weak magnetic fields. This is one of the central scientific questions about the planet: How it transformed from a world rich in water and a thick atmosphere to an almost entirely frozen and dry landscape.
The path to success was fraught with obstacles. Dr. Rob Lillis of the University of California, Berkeley initially had his proposal rejected by NASA, and it was only after the U.S. government shutdown in 2018 that the project received approval. The mission was later postponed again after NASA removed the satellites from the launch manifest of another rocket. Since then, scientists had to redesign nearly every detail.
At one point, when Blue Origin was not yet ready to launch its flagship New Glenn rocket, the scientists had to pack the two satellites and send them back to California, where they were stored in warehouses for months. Only after the company offered NASA a discounted price of $20 million for the first launch of its new rocket was the green light given to proceed.
Despite disruptions, including severe weather and a cruise ship entering the restricted area around the launch pad, the satellites were finally launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. “This mission is like a cat with nine lives,” Dr. Lillis said with a smile. “Every time, it survives what looks like a certain failure.”
The two satellites, each roughly the size of a small refrigerator, will enter an elliptical orbit around Mars and conduct simultaneous measurements for the first time in planetary exploration history. They will initially travel together, then separate to measure the effects of solar wind on Mars’ magnetic fields and thin atmosphere.
Each satellite carries an identical set of scientific instruments: A magnetometer to measure magnetic fields, an electrostatic analyzer to map charged particles, and sensors to measure plasma density, temperature, and electric potential. Even the mission cameras were built by students at Northern Arizona University.
What makes ESCAPADE unique is its cost: Just $94 million, including launch and operations. For comparison, NASA’s previous Mars mission, MAVEN, cost nearly $600 million. This achievement is considered revolutionary due to the use of relatively small, low-cost satellites, built quickly and efficiently by Rocket Lab.
The launch itself is also a milestone: It is the first time Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has carried an interplanetary mission. The rocket is enormous, almost too large for the two small satellites—but the collaboration between NASA and Jeff Bezos’ space company could reduce launch costs for similar scientific missions in the future.
The trajectory planned for ESCAPADE is no less complex than the mission itself. The satellites will initially follow a bean-shaped orbit around the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, return to Earth’s vicinity after about a year, and only then direct their engines toward Mars. This unique path is designed to allow an exceptionally long launch window of about a year, rather than just a few weeks as was previously common.
This means that even in the future, when the possibility of sending hundreds of supply ships or settlers to Mars is considered, launches could be spread over many months. The scientific mission will officially begin in June 2028, following a several-month period when the Sun will be positioned between Earth and Mars, blocking communications. During the following year, the satellites will conduct intensive measurements of plasma and magnetic fields, attempting to understand how Mars lost its atmosphere over billions of years. If all goes as planned, ESCAPADE will not only reveal secrets about Mars but also serve as a new model for how NASA and the scientific community will approach fast, flexible, and low-cost interplanetary missions in the future.