Okay, the plan is for Blue Origin to launch NASA satellites towards Mars, so don’t worry about Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk fighting it out on the Martian surface.
NASA has tapped Blue Origin to take two satellites worth about $79 into space, which will be the first use of the company’s New Glenn rocket. The launch is planned for next year, giving Blue Origin time to test the rocket and prepare for the mission.
The NASA mission, called the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE), involves two identical probes that were originally scheduled to fly with the Psyche mission.
The goals of the EscaPADE mission are to:
- understand the processes controlling the structure of Mars’ hybrid magnetosphere and how it guides ion flows;
- understand how energy and momentum are transported from the solar wind through Mars’ magnetosphere; and
- understand the processes controlling the flow of energy and matter into and out of the collisional atmosphere.
Can Blue Origin be ready by next year when the window to Mars opens up? That is the big question given the continued delays with the New Glenn rocket.
It is good to see NASA spreading its launches into more hands. Now we just need the industry to meet the challenge.
Our Awesome Universe 