Rocket Lab Teams With NASA To Drastically Reduce Mars Mission Costs

NASA, Rocket Lab, and the University of California are preparing to launch the next scientific mission to Mars. The mission will help us learn more about the planet’s past and its potential suitability for life in the future. It is scheduled to launch this autumn from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, USA, using Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.

The First Multi-spacecraft Orbital Science Mission To Mars

The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission will study the interaction of Mars’ atmosphere with the solar wind.

The mission is led by the University of California (UC) at Berkeley and is being developed by the commercial company Advanced Space. Rocket Lab delivers the mission’s spacecraft based on their Photon platform with Martian modifications.

The Twin Explorer spacecraft, developed by Rocket Lab, will arrive at the Martian orbit, creating the first formation in orbit around Mars.

Other key mission partners are NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Blue Origin.

EscaPADE mission launch date

Rocket Labs’ spacecraft was initially scheduled to be launched as additional satellites for the Psyche mission in August 2022, but the launch was cancelled due to problems with the required trajectory.

A new launch window has been set between 29 September and 8 October this year. EscaPADE will be launched on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36 in Florida.

NASA contracted with Blue Origin in February 2023 to provide launch services for the mission under the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract.

 EscaPADE’s Science Activities Include Two Campaigns

The first involves placing both spacecraft in the same orbit in a ‘string of pearls’ configuration.

The second involves both spacecraft passing through very different plasma regions around Mars.

The planned measurements will allow scientists to fully understand how solar wind energy passes through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere and drives ions and atomisation.

Mars is not known to have a global magnetic field, but it does have a weaker, localised magnetic field known as the ‘hybrid magnetosphere’. EscaPADE will study its structure, composition and variability.   The observations will show the planet’s real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes.

In addition, studying hybrid magnetospheres will give scientists a better understanding of space weather, which can protect astronauts and satellites when orbiting Earth and exploring the solar system.

Spacecraft And Subsystems

The mission will consist of two identical orbiters, named ‘Blue’ and ‘Gold’, after the colours of the University of California, Berkeley. Each orbiter will have a platform mass of less than 90 kg and measure 60 x 70 x 90 cm.

The spacecraft is powered by two 480 x 70 cm solar panel wings extending from opposite sides. These wings charge the batteries and power the solar-electric propulsion system.

Rocket Lab’s HyperCurie dual-fuel engines will propel the spacecraft.

Cold gas engines maintain orientation. Communication is carried out in X-band via a 60cm diameter dish antenna. A 90 cm boom towers above the spacecraft, carrying some scientific instruments.

Each satellite will carry three instruments: the EscaPADE Magnetometer (EMAG) to measure the magnetic field, the EscaPADE Electrostatic Analyzer (EESA) to measure ions and electrons, and the EscaPADE Langmuir Probe Suite to measure plasma density and solar extreme ultraviolet flux. The total weight of all three instruments is at most 6.5 kg.

Mission Profile

The EscaPADE mission will be divided into seven phases over approximately 2.5 years: launch and ascent to orbit, interplanetary flight, Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI), orbit reduction, Transition to Science Formation (TSF), primary science, and decommissioning.

After launch from Cape Canaveral, EscaPADE will enter a trans-Mars and direct ballistic Hohmann Type II transfer orbit. After 11 months, the ballistic orbit will reach Mars and transition to a highly elliptical orbit in September 2025.

The orbits will be adjusted for about seven months until it reach a nominal science orbit in April 2026.

The initial science campaign involves flying both vehicles in the same 160 x 8400 km high orbit with an inclination of 60 degrees. This will last about six months, after which one of the vehicles will move to an orbit that will ‘cross’ the orbit of the other vehicle.

This campaign will last about five months. The end of the leading science mission and closure is scheduled for March 2027.

A New Approach To Space Missions

NASA’s plans for new missions have looked different in recent years. The 13 contracts for future launch services that the agency signed in 2022 are fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts with a five-year term and a maximum total value of $300 million.

The VADR contract provides launch services for commercial payloads, which may be at higher risk but are necessarily licensed by the FAA. Using lower mission guarantees and commercial rocket launch best practices, these highly flexible contracts help increase access to space while reducing launch costs.

The EscaPADE mission is a Class D mission, a high-risk mission. It is part of NASA’s programme to fund and develop small, low-cost planetary exploration space missions called Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx).

All SIMPLEx missions are created to study planets, moons, and other celestial bodies in our solar system. They are typically developed quickly, smaller, and less expensive than traditional NASA missions. Instead of the traditional $550 million for a deep space mission, NASA has set a goal of spending only a tenth of that amount and setting a ceiling of $55 million for each SIMPLEx mission, not counting launches.

With this approach, NASA plans to conduct more frequent launches, test new technologies, materials, and instruments, explore a broader range of objects, and get scientific results faster.

Typical examples of such missions include Lunar Flashlight (a small spacecraft designed to search for water ice in permanently shadowed craters on the Moon), Psyche (a mission to study the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, believed to be the core of a protoplanet) and Europa Clipper (a mission to study Jupiter’s moon Europa, a potential candidate for extraterrestrial life).