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It seems like just about every successful space launch these days comes from SpaceX, and that is mostly accurate given how active Elon Musk’s company has been, but that may be changing soon. Blue Origin, a private space company owned primarily by Jeff Bezos, has recently completed a lunch that will be taking NASA probes to Mars.
The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission will use two separate probes that will orbit Mars at the same time from different locations. The goal is to learn more about how the atmosphere of the planet is changed from different flows of particles from the sun.
This will help astronomers to better understand the Martian atmosphere today as well as how the planet lost almost all of its atmosphere in the distant past. NASA explains:
“ESCAPADE will analyze how Mars’ magnetic field guides particle flows around the planet, how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through the magnetosphere, and what processes control the flow of energy and matter into and out of the Martian atmosphere. The observations will reveal the planet’s real-time response to space weather and how the Martian magnetosphere changes over time.”
This mission is only costing about $80 million, which is remarkably cheap for sending something to another planet. This is thanks in large part to the fact that Blue Origin is is taking advantage of the reusable booster, dubbed the Glenn Booster. Blue Origin can now rival SpaceX in price, which should help to further push costs down for missions in the future.
Blue Origin reports that this is just the second launch ever for the New Glenn booster, the first occurring back in January. It is also the first time that they have been able to land the booster vertically on a platform in the ocean, an accomplishment SpaceX has been doing for several years now. A video of the booster landing is available from the Blue Origin webcast, here:
Space enthusiasts are understandably excited about the fact that this technique, which can save millions of dollars per launch, is becoming more common. It is a much more efficient way to bring large payloads to space, and will undoubtedly be needed for future missions, including potential manned missions to Mars and the Moon.
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