NASA is preparing to launch a pair of twin probes to Mars to study how the solar wind has stripped away the planet’s atmosphere and left behind the desolate surface we see there today.

The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer (ESCAPADE) mission is scheduled for an afternoon launch aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as soon as Nov. 9, 2025. The two spacecraft — named Blue and Gold after the University of California, Berkeley’s school colors — will simultaneously study Mars’ magnetosphere, the region around the planet with a magnetic field strong enough to deflect some solar radiation, from two different orbital vantage points. In this way, variations in the field’s strength, atmospheric escape, and how those processes respond to fluctuating solar winds can be finely tracked and characterized.

Why send another orbital mission to Mars?

Scientists think that Mars once hosted a thick atmosphere that, like Earth’s, allowed for snow, rain, rivers, and lakes. During that time, Mars may have been a haven for life. Some 3.5-4.1 billion years ago, however, Mars’ magnetic field mostly shut down, leaving only a patchy remnant field maintained by magnetized rock in Mars’ crust. Since then, the planet has been more susceptible to bombardment by high-energy particles from both the Sun and the Cosmos beyond. Atmospheres subjected to this constant barrage lead to gases being ejected into outer space, exposing the surface to UV and X-ray irradiation that would otherwise be absorbed by the atmosphere. The average Martian atmospheric density at the surface is now only 1% of Earth’s. That is far too thin for water to be stable at the surface any longer and would present a radiation hazard for any life on the surface.

Why the magnetic field faltered, what remains of it today, and exactly when cozy conditions on the surface of Mars ceased to exist are still the subject of debate. It’s possible that Mars went through many episodes of habitability and uninhabitability before settling into the cold and dry desert we see today. Through a unique collaboration between NASA, three universities, and several industry partners, ESCAPADE will build on prior Mars missions and offer pivotal insights into how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ patchy magnetic field and how fast atmospheric escape has occurred through time.

ESCAPADE mission The two ESCAPADE probes will orbit Mars to measure its magnetic field and upper atmosphere.Image: NASA/Kristen Perrin

The mission

ESCAPADE is part of an initiative started by NASA in 2014 called the Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx), which funds projects that are considered higher risk but lower cost relative to standard missions. Missions in this class receive less than $80 million, which is a fraction of the cost of a typical interplanetary NASA mission. For comparison, a previous NASA Mars orbiter, MAVEN, cost $583 million through its primary mission.

SIMPLEx missions achieve lower costs, in part, by limiting their complexity and size and by keeping the instrument suites focused on a few key elements. ESCAPADE includes four instrument packages duplicated on each of the two probes. The mission’s lead institution, the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, built the electrostatic analyzers that will track the flow of ions and electrons from Mars’ atmosphere and solar wind. A magnetometer, built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, will monitor the planet’s magnetic field. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University constructed a group of sensors that make up the Langmuir probes, intended to measure the properties of plasma, or ionized gas, that forms from interactions due to the solar wind surrounding Mars. Finally, a pair of visible and infrared cameras, built by students at Northern Arizona University, will capture images of Mars from new perspectives and possibly record Mars’ green aurora.

ESCAPADE spacecraft diagram ESCAPADE spacecraft and instruments.Image: Rocket Lab USA

Partnerships with commercial companies have been a centerpiece of the mission. Blue Origin is supplying the launch vehicle, New Glenn. This will be the rocket’s second-ever flight and first NASA science launch. Rocket Lab, a New Zealand-founded, US-based company, designed the spacecraft, including power, communications, propulsion, data acquisition, and navigation systems. Advanced Space LLC is in charge of mission design, determining the actual trajectory of the probes from Earth’s surface to Mars orbit.

Getting there

ESCAPADE was originally slated to be a ride-along with the asteroid-focused Psyche mission that launched in 2023. However, the launch dynamics for that mission were determined to reach Mars with too high a velocity for the current ESCAPADE spacecraft to safely enter an orbit around Mars compatible with the science objectives.

Instead, ESCAPADE was given its own launch, and the new flight plan is a first for Mars travel. Typically, missions to Mars wait to launch during narrow Earth-Mars orbital alignment windows to minimize space travel time and simplify flight trajectories. Rather than adhere to tradition, ESCAPADE will first spend a year in a L2 libration point orbit around Earth before starting its 10-month cruise, reaching Mars orbit in September 2027. This plan allows for significantly more flexibility and, if successful, will set the stage for future Mars missions to carry out a similar plan. Although the U.S. federal government is currently shut down, delaying the launch further would incur significant additional costs, so NASA is still mandated to carry out the work.

Once at Mars, the two probes will spend nine months calibrating instruments and aligning to a highly elliptical orbit to track changing conditions through time, moving one in front of the other and reaching as close as 160 kilometers (100 miles) above the surface. After six months, the probes will disband to different orbital planes and continue collecting data for another five months to capture spatial variability. The primary science mission target is for a total of 11 months of data collection that will holistically capture the magnetosphere dynamics.

ESCAPADE probes The ESCAPADE probes in Florida in September 2025, just ahead of launch.Image: Rocket Lab

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