Overview

The ESCAPADE mission will send two identical satellites to orbit Mars and study how space weather affects the planet's unique "hybrid" magnetosphere, which plays a role in atmospheric loss. By collecting data on how solar wind interacts with Mars’ thin atmosphere and magnetized crust, the mission hopes to understand how Mars lost its once-thick atmosphere—an atmosphere that may have supported liquid water and possibly life.

Mars' magnetosphere is made up of leftover magnetic fields from an ancient core and a weaker magnetic field in its upper atmosphere. The solar wind, charged particles, and Mars' atmosphere constantly interact, contributing to the planet’s atmospheric loss. ESCAPADE's twin satellites will measure Mars' upper atmosphere and magnetosphere at altitudes between 100 and 6,200 miles (160 and 10,000 km), giving important insights into how Mars' space weather affects its atmosphere.

The ESCAPADE mission is managed by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, with key partners Rocket Lab, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space LLC, and Blue Origin.

Journey to Mars

Phase I – Launch & Loiter
ESCAPADE launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Nov. 13, 2025. Because Earth and Mars weren’t aligned at that time for a direct trip, the spacecraft launched into a “loiter” orbit that loops around Earth’s Lagrange point 2 — about a million miles away, opposite the Sun. In the fall of 2026, when Earth and Mars align, the spacecraft will use Earth’s gravity to slingshot toward Mars.

Phase II – Interplanetary Cruise
On their way to Mars, the two spacecraft will use their onboard engines to make small course corrections, called trajectory correction maneuvers. These adjustments fine-tune their path and speed, ensuring both arrive at the right time and place.

Phase III – Mars Orbit Insertion
The spacecraft will reach Mars a few days apart and each will fire its engines for about 11 minutes to slow down and enter orbit around the planet. They’ll first settle into large "capture" orbits lasting about 60 hours each, then gradually adjust their paths to reach the smaller orbits needed for science observations.

Phase IV – Orbit Adjustment and Transition to Science
After arrival, the spacecraft will carefully shift into similar but slightly different orbits, keeping a safe distance from each other. This two-step process — orbit reduction and transition to science — must finish before late 2027, when communication with Earth will be interrupted during solar conjunction. By that time, one spacecraft will orbit Mars every 8.5 hours and the other every 9.5 hours. After conjunction, both will make final maneuvers so that by mid-2028 they are in nearly matching science orbits, ready to begin collecting data.

Phase V – Science
ESCAPADE’s science phase is divided into two campaigns. In the first, the spacecraft will fly in nearly the same orbit, one trailing the other like a “string of pearls.” In the second, they’ll move into different orbits to study separate regions of Mars’ magnetic environment at the same time.

Science Goals and Objectives

Unravel Mars’ Hybrid Magnetosphere
Understand how Mars’ unusual mix of crustal and induced magnetic fields creates a complex “hybrid” magnetosphere unlike any other in the solar system.

Trace Atmospheric Loss and Climate Change
Investigate how the solar wind strips away Mars’ atmosphere over time, shaping the planet’s transition from a warmer, wetter past to the cold, thin-air world we see today. Science Campaign A will capture short-timescale changes in plasma and field conditions that drive this atmospheric escape, measuring the same location in space a few minutes apart.

Track Solar Wind–Mars Interactions in Real Time
Observe how bursts of solar activity and changes in the interplanetary magnetic field directly affect Mars’ magnetic environment and atmospheric loss. Science Campaign B will measure these effects simultaneously in different regions: one spacecraft can be “upstream” in the solar wind, while the other is “downstream” inside Mars’ magnetosphere.

Map Key Features of the Martian Space Environment
Characterize structures such as the bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetotail, crustal-field “mini” radiation belts, and ion escape plume to understand how energy and particles move through the Martian system.

Advance Comparative Planetology and Future Exploration
Use Mars as a natural laboratory to compare magnetospheres across planets and improve models of planetary habitability of far-off exoplanets that we can't yet directly measure. ESCAPADE's data will inform the design of future robotic and human missions to withstand Mars’ space-weather conditions.

Spacecraft and Mission Specs

Nation	United States of America (USA)
Location	Mars
Spacecraft	ESCAPADE (two identical orbiters)
Spacecraft Mass	Dry: 209 kilograms (460 pounds) each Fueled: 535 kilograms (1,179 pounds) each
Launch Vehicle	Blue Origin New Glenn 2
Launch Date and Time	Nov. 13, 2025, 3:55 p.m. EST
Launch Site	Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Mission Duration	Prime Science Mission: 11 months Total (including cruise phases): 3 years, 7 months
Scientific Instruments	Electrostatic Analyzer (UC Berkeley) Magnetometer (NASA Goddard) Langmuir Probe (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
Student Instruments	Visible and Infrared Cameras (Northern Arizona University)