Mars is about to receive a double dose of attention. This weekend, a pair of identical NASA satellites will launch together to help reveal how the Red Planet lost its thick atmosphere and liquid water — one of its oldest mysteries, and a key to understanding how it transformed from a once-habitable world into the frozen desert it is today.
Scheduled for liftoff no earlier than Sunday (Nov. 9) aboard Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the $80 million ESCAPADE mission — short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers — will send two twin probes, nicknamed Blue and Gold, to orbit Mars in tandem. The mission marks NASA's first dual-satellite mission to another planet, and aims to create a 3D view of how the solar wind, the stream of charged particles from the sun, energizes and strips away Martian air.
