On Episode 210 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Robert Lillis of the Mars ESCAPADE mission.
Poor Mars. After a warm, wet childhood, the planet dried out and became cold and arid. And why? Mostly because it lost most of its atmosphere, scraped away by solar radiation. NASA's Maven mission studied the phenomenon of atmospheric loss for years, but has now gone silent.
Enter Mars ESCAPADE — the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers — twin orbiters that will study the loss of Martian atmosphere more closely than ever before. The mission has been executed at a budget price. It was largely built by industry upstart Rocket Lab, and launched on a New Glenn rocket. It will arrive at Mars in 2028, but we're giving you an early look at why it's an important and, frankly, very cool mission.
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Space news of the week
- SpaceX's Starship V3 megarocket finally has a debut launch date. Here's when it will fly
- NASA Outlines Preliminary Artemis III Mission Plans
- NASA's Psyche asteroid probe will fly within 3,000 miles of Mars today: Here's what to expect
- No, this isn't a solar eclipse. It's an image of Mars, captured by NASA's asteroid-bound Psyche probe
- ESCAPADE
- ESCAPADE - UC Berkeley
- ESCAPADE Trajectory Animations
Model Falcon 9!
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Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners collectSPACE.com.
About This Week In Space
This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars?
Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Space.com as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.
