NASA has designated Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin and their upcoming New Glenn rocket as transport vehicles for their future ESCAPADE missions.
ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) is a mission in which NASA plans to send two SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration) craft to Mars to study the planet’s magnetosphere. NASA writes about the mission:
“ESCAPADE will study Mars’ magnetosphere – the magnetized area of space around the planet – using two identical small spacecraft, which will provide simultaneous two-point observations. The spacecraft will help provide researchers a better understanding of how the magnetosphere interacts with the solar wind, and how energy and plasma enter and leave the magnetosphere. Each satellite will carry three instruments: a magnetometer for measuring magnetic field, an electrostatic analyzer to measure ions and electrons, and a Langmuir probe for measuring plasma density and solar extreme ultraviolet flux.”
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has so far never lifted off from Earth. Originally, Blue Origin’s plan was for the rocket to reach space as early as 2020. Since then, however, this has been moved forward a few times and at the moment there is no information on when New Glenn can make its maiden flight.
NASA plans to send ESCAPADE to Mars sometime in late 2024. Hopefully, by then, Blue Origin has also made sure New Glenn is ready to handle that task. Above you can see an illustration of NASA’s two SIMPLEx craft that will enter orbit around Mars, and below you can see an illustration of New Glenn.
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Foto: Blue Origin
New Glenn is a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin. Named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, design work on the vehicle began in 2012. Illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initially publicly unveiled in September 2016. New Glenn is a two-stage rocket with a diameter of 7 m (23 ft). Its first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines that are also being designed and manufactured by Blue Origin.
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