Blue Origin Postpones Attempt to Launch Unique ''EscaPADE' Orbiters to Mars (cnn.com) 33
UPDATE (1:16 PST) Today's launch has been scrubbed due to weather, and Blue Origin is now reviewing opportunities for new launch windows.
Sunday Morning Blue Origin livestreamed the planned launch of its New Glenn rocket, which will carry a very unique mission for NASA. "Twin spacecraft are set to take off on an unprecedented, winding journey to Mars," reports CNN, "where they will investigate why the barren red planet began to lose its atmosphere billions of years ago." By observing two Mars locations simultaneously, this mission can measure how Mars responds to space weather in real time — and how the Martian magnetosphere changes... Called EscaPADE, the mission will aim for an orbital trajectory that has never been attempted before, according to aerospace company Advanced Space, which is supporting the project. If successful, it could be a crucial case study that can allow extraordinary flexibility for planetary science missions down the road. The robotic mission plans to spend a year idling in an orbital backroad before heading to its target destination... [R]ather than turning toward Mars, the two orbiters will instead aim for Lagrange Point 2, or L2 — a cosmic balance point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. Lagrange points are special because they act as gravitational wells in which the pull of the sun and Earth are in perfect balance. The conditions can allow spacecraft to linger without being dragged away... The spacecraft will then loop endlessly in a kidney bean-shaped orbit around L2 until next year's Mars transfer window opens.
This "launch and loiter" project is part of NASA's SIMPLEx [Small, Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration] program, which seeks high-value missions for less money, notes CNN. "EscaPADE's cost was less than $100 million, compared with the roughly $300 million to $600 million price tags of other NASA satellites orbiting Mars."
"Blue Origin is also attempting to land and recover New Glenn's first-stage booster," notes another CNN article.
Sunday Morning Blue Origin livestreamed the planned launch of its New Glenn rocket, which will carry a very unique mission for NASA. "Twin spacecraft are set to take off on an unprecedented, winding journey to Mars," reports CNN, "where they will investigate why the barren red planet began to lose its atmosphere billions of years ago." By observing two Mars locations simultaneously, this mission can measure how Mars responds to space weather in real time — and how the Martian magnetosphere changes... Called EscaPADE, the mission will aim for an orbital trajectory that has never been attempted before, according to aerospace company Advanced Space, which is supporting the project. If successful, it could be a crucial case study that can allow extraordinary flexibility for planetary science missions down the road. The robotic mission plans to spend a year idling in an orbital backroad before heading to its target destination... [R]ather than turning toward Mars, the two orbiters will instead aim for Lagrange Point 2, or L2 — a cosmic balance point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. Lagrange points are special because they act as gravitational wells in which the pull of the sun and Earth are in perfect balance. The conditions can allow spacecraft to linger without being dragged away... The spacecraft will then loop endlessly in a kidney bean-shaped orbit around L2 until next year's Mars transfer window opens.
This "launch and loiter" project is part of NASA's SIMPLEx [Small, Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration] program, which seeks high-value missions for less money, notes CNN. "EscaPADE's cost was less than $100 million, compared with the roughly $300 million to $600 million price tags of other NASA satellites orbiting Mars."
"Blue Origin is also attempting to land and recover New Glenn's first-stage booster," notes another CNN article.
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on hold
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They wanted front row seats.
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Yep, scrubbed due to clouds. Proof that the cloud is dangerous.
Blame DNS (Score:2)
Dangerous Nearby Stratocumulus
Rediscovering the wheel... (Score:4, Interesting)
re: ""where they will investigate why the barren red planet began to lose its atmosphere billions of years ago."
Isn't this already settled... for decades? Mars lost its magnetic field back then due to core cooling. We know this because of crustal magnetic signatures which were confirmed by MGS [wikipedia.org].
Once the magnetic field was gone, solar wind atmospheric stripping was unimpeded. This was confirmed by MAVEN [wikipedia.org] in 2015.
Hopefully there are more relevant "science objectives" than this dead issue.
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I'm more interested in how that giant crack (Valles Marineris) formed on the surface of mars. Even the smaller one, Aganippe Fossa, is a bit of mystery.
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Exit Interview? (Score:1)
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Hopefully there are more relevant "science objectives" than this dead issue.
You mean if we like get into a pissing match with Martians over who actually invented the wheel?
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> Hopefully there are more relevant "science objectives" than this dead issue.
It's an exoteric story. Really they want funding to build rockets and this is a technology demonstrator.
But there is a theory that the asteroid belt is the former crust of Mars. More data on that would be interesting.
It's of course "widely discredited" but not with a scientific method or anything. Comparing isotope ratios would be fun someday.
Wrong! (Score:2)
First stage landing (Score:2)
I'm expecting an Earth shattering kaboom since this is an incredibly hard thing to do. If BO nails this on the first attempt I'll be shocked.
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This is their second attempt.
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I don't believe they tried to land the first stage booster the first time did they?
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I just looked it up. Yep, they did attempt a landing but it didn't work.
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Earth shattering kaboom
Only if Bugs hasn't stolen the the Iludium Q-36 explosive space modulator.
Is it hard to build? (Score:2)
I feel like Blue Origin wasted money on an expensive hard to build rocket.
Why is that wasted money? Because its main competitor SpaceX thinks VERY HARD about manufacturability. Compare the speed at which SpaceX hauls out new Starships and Raptor engines. The USA used to know that manufacturability was important. That's how WW2 was won. One example, the Opel Blitz truck built by the Germans versus the GMC CCKW (nicknamed "deuce and a half"). The problem with the Opel Blitz was that it was hard to manufacture
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That's the difference between a pet project (BO) and an actual industrial endeavor (SpaceX).
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There are other factors to take into account: for example, the difference in population by a factor of two, or the fact that only one of those two nations was under heavy bombing of its industrial zones at the time.
Space Elevator Music. (Score:2)
The spacecraft will then loop endlessly in a kidney bean-shaped orbit around L2 until next year's Mars transfer window opens.
Maaan, if they don’t play what they damn well should be playin’ for that point in the sky. Space elevator music for the ages.
https://youtu.be/Vppbdf-qtGU [youtu.be]
Re: Space Elevator Music. (Score:2)
I would prefer some Scintilla Strings
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]
Hmm... hope I copypasted that correctly.
Gravitational Well? (Score:2)
Lull maybe better name. Wells are usually associated with the stronger acceleration effects.
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Oh, a "Boredom"! Yes. "Lagrange points are special because they act as gravitational boredoms in which the pull of the sun and Earth are in perfect balance."
Scrubbed (Score:2)
Punxsutawney Phil saw a tiny cloud in the distance, so they chickened out of launching.
Why "launch and loiter"? (Score:2)
I'm not seeing why "launch and loiter" is beneficial. If Mars transfer windows were only hours, or even days, long, I could see that it's useful to launch early so that you don't end up missing your window because of weather or ground equipment problems, but the transfer windows are weeks to months in duration.
It seems to me that this strategy is mainly driven by lack of confidence in New Glenn, which makes sense given that it's a completely unproven platform. Over the 8+ weeks of the 2026 launch window
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more closer
Er, I guess I couldn't decide whether to say "closer" or "more closely" and munged them together. :-)
If only there were a way to preview posts before submitting them...