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Accueil > A propos du LPP > Communication > Actualités archivées > 2025 > Launch of the ESCAPADE mission to Mars

Launch of the ESCAPADE mission to Mars

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©Rocket Lab
Blue et Gold, 2 satellites identiques orbiteront autour de Mars pour étudier l’influence du vent solaire sur l’environnement magnétosphérique de la planète.


 
On November 13, 2026, at 8:55 pm (UTC)., the New Glenn 2 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral, Florida), carrying the two satellites of the ESCAPADE mission to Mars (PI : Rob Lillis, UC Berkeley). This spectacular launch, during which the first stage of the 98-meter-high rocket was successfully recovered, enabled the Blue and Gold satellites developed by the University of Berkeley and Rocket Lab to be placed into low-Earth orbit before their transfer to Mars.

The LPP, funded by the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES), is participating in this mission, which aims to study the magnetized environment of Mars as it interacts with the solar wind. The Space Plasmas team provided the detection electronics for the mission’s electron spectrometer, which will measure these charged particles, whether they come from the solar wind or the Martian ionosphere. The satellites are also equipped with an ion spectrometer, a magnetometer, a Langmuir probe, and a camera.

ESCAPADE will be able to study the response of the Martian environment to variations in the solar wind, with Blue and Gold positioned in September 2027 in a highly eccentric orbit with a perigee of 160 km and an apogee in the solar wind of 8,400 km. By accurately characterizing the transfer of energy and matter between the solar wind and the planet, data from the ESCAPADE mission will make it possible to better extrapolate the current escape rates of the components of the Martian atmosphere at the beginning of the planet’s history and thus reconstruct its evolution over billions of years.

LPP contact : Matthieu Berthomier

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CNRS Ecole Polytechnique Sorbonne Université Université Paris-Saclay Observatoire de Paris
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Exploitant du site : Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique route de Saclay F-91128 PALAISEAU CEDEX
Hébergeur : Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique route de Saclay F-91128 PALAISEAU CEDEX
Directeur de la publication : Directeur du LPP

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