00:00Mars, once a warm, watery world with a thick atmosphere.
00:05Now, a cold, arid landscape with its atmosphere thinned out.
00:09What caused this transformation?
00:11Over billions of years, a relentless flow of particles from the sun, the solar wind,
00:16has slowly stripped away the Martian atmosphere, causing surface water to evaporate.
00:21But how exactly did this happen, and how could it affect future Mars explorers?
00:26NASA's new ESCAPADE mission aims to find out.
00:30The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers mission is studying the planet's real-time response to the solar wind,
00:37helping us understand Mars' climate history using two spacecraft in orbit for the first time.
00:43Past missions that we've sent to Mars to understand the interaction of the solar wind with the planet have only
00:50been single spacecraft missions.
00:52So ESCAPADE gives us what you might call a stereo perspective, two different vantage points simultaneously.
00:58This will allow us to really make measurements we've never made before and to characterize the system in a way
01:03we couldn't characterize it before.
01:05ESCAPADE's twin spacecraft fly in two different formations to see how Mars responds to the solar wind in both time
01:12and space.
01:13This is the first time that two or more spacecraft have worked out a formation in orbit about another planet,
01:20in this case Mars.
01:22In the first formation, nicknamed the String of Pearls, the two spacecraft chase each other in nearly identical, highly elongated
01:30orbits.
01:31This allows ESCAPADE to observe rapid changes in the Martian atmosphere caused by sudden variations in the solar wind.
01:37When we have two spacecraft crossing those regions in the quick succession, we can monitor how those regions vary on
01:45timescales as short as 2 minutes up to 30 minutes,
01:47before we had to wait for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 hours.
01:51In the second formation, the spacecraft have different orbits that are more separated from each other,
01:56allowing ESCAPADE to study both the solar wind and the upper atmosphere of Mars simultaneously for the very first time.
02:03We'll have one spacecraft in the solar wind so we can measure what's coming in, and then one spacecraft closer
02:09to Mars.
02:10This will help us understand the cause and effect of what's happening when space weather comes to Mars.
02:18ESCAPADE will not only fill gaps in the story of how Mars' atmosphere changed,
02:22it will also help us prepare to send human explorers to the Red Planet.
02:26For example, ESCAPADE will give scientists more details about Mars' ionosphere,
02:31a part of the upper atmosphere that future astronauts will rely on to send radio and navigation signals around the
02:37planet.
02:38Understanding how that ionosphere varies will be a really important part of understanding how to correct the distortions in those
02:46radio signals
02:47that we will need to communicate with each other and to navigate on Mars.
02:52ESCAPADE's work could also help keep future Mars explorers safe.
02:56Atmospheres can provide a shield that protects humans and other assets on the surface from things like solar radiation or
03:04intergalactic radiation.
03:05So it's important for us to understand how the atmosphere is changing in order for us to know what we
03:10have to do to protect humans and other assets we might put on the surface.
03:13In addition to new science, ESCAPADE is pioneering a new way to reach Mars.
03:19Previously, spacecraft launching to the Red Planet had to wait years for Earth and Mars to line up.
03:25However, ESCAPADE is launching into a unique orbit that loops around a region in space known as L2, roughly a
03:31million miles away.
03:32Then it'll return and use Earth's gravity to slingshot itself to Mars.
03:37This allows ESCAPADE to launch early and wait in space until the two planets are in the right positions.
03:44This first-of-its-kind orbit will also make ESCAPADE the only spacecraft to ever pass through a distant part
03:50of Earth's magnetotail
03:51before beginning its 10-month cruise to Mars and starting its cutting-edge work there.
03:58NASA's heliophysics fleet is looking at the sun's influence.
04:03And with ESCAPADE, we'll now have multi-point measurements at Mars, which will help us have a more comprehensive picture
04:11of what's happening throughout the solar system.
04:15We need a solar system-wide understanding of space weather in order to protect our technology and our astronauts wherever
04:23they go.
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