Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) is a spacecraft mission to Mars consisting of two spacecraft known as Blue and Gold launched in November 2025.[5][4][6] The mission is designed to demonstrate low-cost planetary space exploration. The twin spacecraft will study Mars' magnetosphere and how solar wind contributed to the loss of most of the planet's atmosphere over solar system history. The mission is led by UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory with Robert Lillis as Principal Investigator. It is part of NASA's SIMPLEx program.[7][8]
Each identical ESCAPADE spacecraft has a dry mass of ~200kg (440lb), with a wet mass of 550kg (1,210lb). The spacecraft bus is based on the Rocket Lab Explorer spacecraft bus and is approximately 1.20×1.65×1.09m (3ft 11in×5ft 5in×3ft 7in). The spacecraft is powered by two solar array wings that when fully deployed is approximately 4.88×1.65×1.09m (16.0×5.4×3.6ft). The spacecraft buses were drastically enlarged from the original mission that was supposed to hitch a ride on Psyche after a change in launch vehicle made it impossible for the smaller dual orbiters to reach Mars while attached to Psyche so a separate launcher had to be used which enabled larger spacecraft buses. The original dimensions for each ESCAPADE spacecraft were 90kg (200lb) and 60×70×90cm (24×28×35in).[9][10]
EESA is an electrostatic analyzer designed to measure the energies, fluxes, and masses of suprathermal ions from 2 eV to 20 keV and energies and fluxes of suprathermal electrons from 3 eV to 10 keV. It is mounted on the upper deck of the spacecraft bus, with a 240° x 120° field of view for electrons and 247.5° x 90° field of view for ions.
ELP, developed by the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is a Langmuir probe consisting of three separate sensors: the multi-needle Langmuir probe (mNLP) consists of 4 thin needles mounted in two pairs ~3/4 way up the boom and measures thermal electron density; the two planar ion probes (PIPs) are mounted on the instrument deck and measure thermal ion density, and the floating potential probe (FPP) is also mounted on the spacecraft deck and measures changes in relative spacecraft electrostatic potential.
VISIONS (Visible and Infrared Observation System), developed by Northern Arizona University, is a dual wavelength camera that captures images in both visible and infrared wavelength ranges simultaneously. VISIONS will uniquely be able to capture Mars in one frame unlike other Mars orbiters that are closer to the planet which will make it possible to study seasonal changes in the size of the polar caps and capture images of Mar's aurorae. In addition to its primary science mission it is also a technology demonstration to show how low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products can operate in an interplanetary mission.[12][13][14]
Trajectory
Animation of ESCAPADE
Around the Sun - frame rotating with Earth
Around the Sun
Sun ·ESCAPADE-Gold/Blue·Earth·Mars ·SE-L2 point
The design of the ESCAPADE mission has been developed by Advanced Space LLC[15] and originally called for ESCAPADE to be injected directly into an interplanetary trajectory.[4] After several delays and revisions, the final mission plan had ESCAPADE launched to a staging orbit near the Earth-Sun L2Lagrange point on November 13, 2025. It will loiter there, studying space weather, until late 2026 when the Mars transfer window opens. Then ESCAPADE will change course to dive near Earth for a gravity assist and execute its escape burns to place it on a trajectory to Mars.[16]
ESCAPADE will execute one major and several minor propulsive course correction maneuvers during its 11-month cruise to Mars. The twin probes will reach Mars a few days apart and each will fire its engines for about 11 minutes to enter a highly elliptical orbit. Over the following six months, the orbit will be lowered and circularized until it reaches the nominal science orbit.[17]
Once the nominal science orbit is achieved by mid-2028, Science Campaign A will begin which involves both spacecraft flying in the same orbit at varying distances from one another, ~170×8,400km (110×5,220mi) (5.66 hours) with an inclination of 65 degrees. This will last approximately six months.
At the conclusion of Science Campaign A, Blue will lower its apoapsis to 7,000km (4,300mi) and Gold will raise its apoapsis to 10,000km (6,200mi) to begin Science Campaign B. With different orbital periods (4.9 and 6.6 hours), the orbits will precess (due to Mars' nonuniform gravity field) at different rates and thus separate, allowing simultaneous measurements of distant parts of the Mars magnetosphere. This campaign will operate for approximately five months until the end of the nominal science mission.[4]
Timeline
The Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration ("SIMPLEx") program[18] was intended as a program to select small, low-cost space missions to fly as secondary payloads on other NASA missions. As a ride-along mission on another launch, not a main mission, they were intended to have low cost and tolerate a higher level of risk than other NASA missions.
ESCAPADE was originally selected from a competition to be a low-cost ride-along "mission of opportunity" to hitch a ride to Mars with the Psyche spacecraft, and drop off as the spacecraft made a fly-by of Mars. Thus, it had an anticipated launch cost of nearly nothing. However, the launch of the Psyche mission was awarded to Falcon Heavy, meaning that Psyche will make a higher-energy flyby of Mars, and ESCAPADE mission plans could not be updated in time for the launch.[19] Rather than cancel the mission, NASA announced that it would go on a different launch vehicle, and requested bids from industry for the launch.
In February 2023, Blue Origin won the contract to launch the mission on the first flight of the New Glenn launch vehicle in October 2024, at a cost of ~$20 million.[8] The entire cost of ESCAPADE was $75 million, with $55 million being the cost for the spacecraft buses and science instruments and $20 million to cover the cost for the New Glenn rocket launch. For comparison NASA's MAVEN mars orbiter launched in 2013 cost $582 million to build and launch and the failed 1999 Mars Polar Lander cost $165 million to build and launch. ESCAPADE's smaller cost is similar to ISRO's $74 million Mars Orbiter Mission.[20][21]
In August 2024 the spacecraft arrived at the launch site.[22] On September 6, 2024, the launch was delayed by NASA to spring 2025 at the earliest due to schedule and technical issues involved with the mission's New Glenn launch vehicle, which was set to debut with the launch of these spacecraft.[23] NASA said: "The agency's decision to stand down was based on a review of launch preparations and discussions with Blue Origin, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Space Launch Delta 45 Range Safety Organization, as well as NASA's Launch Services Program and Science Mission Directorate. The decision was made to avoid significant cost, schedule, and technical challenges associated with potentially removing fuel from the spacecraft in the event of a launch delay, which could be caused by a number of factors."[24]
A launch attempt on 9 November 2025, was scrubbed due to weather conditions.[25] On 10 November, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned commercial rocket launches during the daytime due to the ongoing government shutdown.[26] However, the FAA granted Blue Origin a waiver for this launch.[27] The second launch attempt on 12 November was scrubbed due to solar storms.[28][29][30] Finally, the mission successfully launched at 3:55:01 PM on 13 November 2025.[31][6][32][33][34]
↑ Over time, the momentum stored in reaction wheels can reach the wheel's maximum speed, a situation called 'saturation.' The wheel thus needs to be slowed down, imparting a torque; to prevent undesired rotation of the spacecraft as the wheel spins down, the torque is cancelled out using cold gas thrusters, in a maneuver called 'desaturation.'
"ESCAPADE: A Low-Cost Formation at Mars"(PDF). 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC). 73. Paris, France: International Astronautical Federation (IAF). September 18–22, 2022. IAC-22-B4,IP,23,x74203.
Missions are ordered by launch date. Sign † indicates failure en route or before intended mission data returned. ‡ indicates use of the planet as a gravity assist en route to another destination.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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