NASA's twin ESCAPADE spacecraft have used Earth itself as a slingshot, completing two close flybys in a maneuver the agency describes as unprecedented. The two small Mars-bound probes swung past our planet using its gravity to change their trajectory, and they are now headed toward Mars.
The spacecraft, both NASA smallsats, launched roughly a year ago on a New Glenn rocket. Their Earth flybys came nearly a year after liftoff, a timeline that reflects the long, fuel-efficient routes that deep-space missions often rely on. Using a planet's gravity to speed up or redirect a probe is a common technique, but the double gravity assist performed here is what makes the sequence stand out.
Once they reach Mars, the probes are designed to study the planet's upper atmosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, the stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun. Scientists hope that understanding this boundary will help explain how Mars lost much of the atmosphere it once had. The exact arrival date at Mars has not been confirmed in the information currently available.
Credit. Based on reporting by Meghan Bartels for Space.com. Is this your work? Write to us.
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