Why Is The Mars Escapade Mission Important For NASA?
- Technology New Innovation & Researches
Sophia Silva- 0
- 11 minutes read
The California-owned company, which is scheduled to send a NASA cubesat mission to the moon this fall and wishes to launch its own private life-hunting Venus mission in 2023, has been awarded a contract to formulate the twin spacecraft for NASA’s possible Mars Escapade Mission.
The Mars Escapade Mission And Rocket Labs
ESCAPADE in Mars Escapade Mission, short for “Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers,” would utilize two Mars-orbiting spacecraft to understand how the planet’s atmosphere is parted away by the solar wind, the stream of charged particles that are flowing from the sun. This mission could be of great help for better understanding of the scientists how and why Mars’ climate has changed over time, as the empty planet looks quite different today than in the ancient past when it had a thick atmosphere and, scientists think they had plentiful liquid water on its surface.
Rocket Lab will formulate the ESCAPADE for the Mars Escapade Mission duo using its Photon spacecraft bus, company representatives announced today on June 15, 2021. Peter Beck who is the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab said in an interview,
"This is a hugely promising mission that will deliver big science in a small package."
"Planetary science missions have traditionally hundreds of millions of dollars and taken up to a decade to come to fruition."
He further added,
"Our Photon spacecraft for ESCAPADE will demonstrate a more cost-effective approach to planetary exploration that will increase the science community’s access to our solar system for the better."
ESCAPADE NASA is one of three finalists who has been selected for further development in 2019 by NASA’s “Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration” initiative. At least one of the three finalists is expected to make it to the launch pad, as stated by an agency official.
The Mars contract initiates another milestone in Rocket Lab’s vision to make interplanetary missions accessible and affordable to the wider science community. In an interview, Beck told,
“Bringing down the cost of interplanetary missions, and also making them possible in much shorter timeframes, is having an enormous impact on the volume of science we can get done.”
By adding further he said,
“It’s typical for planetary scientists to get one or two major missions launched in their career, largely due to mission cost, and that’s changing with Photon.”
He added,
“By sending lots of smaller missions more frequently, rather than one major study per decade, scientists can iterate on findings as we go, adapt, and then launch the next mission. The kinds of science these missions will achieve are groundbreaking, from searching for life in Venus’ atmosphere to understanding how climates change on Mars.”
Mars Mission Timeline
In Mars Mission 1966 with exceptional foresight, NASA and its associates in 1966 designed the manned scientific expedition of Mars. Beyond Apollo blogger, David S. F. Portree and Space historians demonstrate their Mars evolution timeline plan for revealing the secrets of the Red Planet. The NASA Mars mission timeline is somewhat like this:
1960
- Marsnik 1 (Mars 1960A) – 10 October 1960 – Attempted Mars Flyby (Launch Failure)
- Marsnik 2 (Mars 1960B) – 14 October 1960 – Attempted Mars Flyby (Launch Failure)
1962
- Sputnik 22 – 24 October 1962 – Attempted Mars Flyby
- Mars 1 – 1 November 1962 – Mars Flyby (Contact Lost)
- Sputnik 24 – 4 November 1962 – Attempted Mars Lander
1964
- Mariner 3 – 5 November 1964 – Attempted Mars Flyby
- Mariner 4 – 28 November 1964 – Mars Flyby
- Zond 2 – 30 November 1964 – Mars Flyby (Contact Lost)
1965
Zond 3 – 18 July 1965 – Lunar Flyby, Mars Test Vehicle
1969
- Mariner 6 – 25 February 1969 – Mars Flyby
- Mariner 7 – 27 March 1969 – Mars Flyby
- Mars 1969A – 27 March 1969 – Attempted Mars Orbiter (Launch Failure)
- Mars 1969B – 2 April 1969 – Attempted Mars Orbiter (Launch Failure)
1971
- Mariner 8 – 9 May 1971 – Attempted Mars Flyby (Launch Failure)
- Cosmos 419 – 10 May 1971 – Attempted Mars Orbiter/Lander
- Mars 2 – 19 May 1971 – Mars Orbiter/ Attempted Lander
- Mars 3 – 28 May 1971 – Mars Orbiter/ Lander
- Mariner 9 – 30 May 1971 – Mars Orbiter
1973
- Mars 4 – 21 July 1973 – Mars Flyby (Attempted Mars Orbiter)
- Mars 5 – 25 July 1973 – Mars Orbiter
- Mars 6 – 5 August 1973 – Mars Lander (Contact Lost)
- Mars 7 – 9 August 1973 – Mars Flyby (Attempted Mars Lander)
1975
- Viking 1 – 20 August 1975 – Mars Orbiter and Lander
- Viking 2 – 9 September 1975 – Mars Orbiter and Lander
1988
- Phobos 1 – 7 July 1988 – Attempted Mars Orbiter/Phobos Landers
- Phobos 2 – 12 July 1988 – Mars Orbiter/Attempted Phobos Landers
1992
Mars Observer – 25 September 1992 – Attempted Mars Orbiter (Contact Lost)
1996
- Mars Global Surveyor – 07 November 1996 – Mars Orbiter
- Mars 96 – 16 November 1996 – Attempted Mars Orbiter/Landers
- Mars Pathfinder – 04 December 1996 – Mars Lander and Rover
1998
- Nozomi (Planet-B) – 3 July 1998 – Mars Orbiter
- Mars Climate Orbiter – 11 December 1998 – Attempted Mars Orbiter
1999
- Mars Polar Lander – 3 January 1999 – Attempted Mars Lander
- Deep Space 2 (DS2) – 3 January 1999 – Attempted Mars Penetrators
2001
Mars Odyssey – 7 April 2001 – Mars Orbiter
2003
- Mars Express – 2 June 2003 – Mars Orbiter and Lander
- Spirit (MER-A) – 10 June 2003 – Mars Rover
- Opportunity (MER-B) – 8 July 2003 – Mars Rover
2005
Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter – 12 August 2005 – Mars Orbiter
2007
Phoenix – 04 August 2007 – Mars Scout Lander
2011
- Phobos-Grunt – 08 November 2011 – Attempted Martian Moon Phobos Lander
- Yangshuo-1 – 08 November 2011 – Attempted Mars Orbiter
- Mars Science Laboratory – 26 November 2011 – Mars Rover
2013
- Mangalyaan – 05 November 2013 – ISRO (India) Mars Orbiter
- MAVEN – 18 November 2013 – Mars Scout Mission Orbiter
2016
ExoMars 2016 – 14 March 2016 – ESA Mars Orbiter and Lander
2018
InSight – 5 May 2018 – Mars Lander
2020
- Hope – 19 July 2020 – United Arab Emirates Mars Orbiter
- Tianwen 1 – 23 July 2020 – Chinese Mars Orbiter and Rover
- Mars 2020 – 30 July 2020 – Mars Rover and Rotorcraft
2022
- ExoMars 2022 – August-October 2022 – ESA Mars Rover and Russian Surface Platform
- EscaPADE – TBD – Dual Mars Orbiting Spacecraft
2024
Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) – September 2024 – JAXA (Japan) Phobos Sample Return Mission.
