1 00:00:00,367 --> 00:00:04,671 Mars, once a warm, watery world with a thick atmosphere. 2 00:00:05,238 --> 00:00:09,009 Now, a cold, arid landscape with its atmosphere thinned out. 3 00:00:09,342 --> 00:00:12,045 What caused this transformation? 4 00:00:12,045 --> 00:00:16,850 Over billions of years, a relentless flow of particles from the Sun, the solar wind, 5 00:00:16,850 --> 00:00:19,452 has slowly stripped away the Martian atmosphere, 6 00:00:19,452 --> 00:00:21,721 causing surface water to evaporate. 7 00:00:21,721 --> 00:00:26,126 But how exactly did this happen, and how could it affect future Mars explorers? 8 00:00:26,459 --> 00:00:29,562 NASA's new ESCAPADE mission aims to find out. 9 00:00:30,096 --> 00:00:33,533 The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers 10 00:00:33,533 --> 00:00:36,669 mission is studying the planet's real-time response 11 00:00:36,669 --> 00:00:40,173 to the solar wind, helping us understand Mars' climate history. 12 00:00:40,173 --> 00:00:43,076 Using two spacecraft in orbit for the first time. 13 00:00:43,076 --> 00:00:47,680 Past missions that we've sent to Mars to understand, the interaction 14 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:51,918 of the solar wind with the planet have only been single spacecraft missions. 15 00:00:52,218 --> 00:00:55,555 So ESCAPADE gives us what you might call a stereo perspective. 16 00:00:55,688 --> 00:00:58,525 Two different vantage points simultaneously. 17 00:00:58,525 --> 00:01:00,660 This will allow us to really make measurements 18 00:01:00,660 --> 00:01:02,295 we’ve never made before, and to characterize 19 00:01:02,295 --> 00:01:04,798 a system in a way we couldn't characterize it before. 20 00:01:05,131 --> 00:01:08,868 ESCAPADE’s twin spacecraft fly in two different formations 21 00:01:09,002 --> 00:01:13,339 to see how Mars responds to the solar wind in both time and space. 22 00:01:13,907 --> 00:01:18,278 This is the first time that two or more spacecraft have worked out 23 00:01:18,278 --> 00:01:21,414 a formation in orbit about another planet, in this case, Mars. 24 00:01:22,549 --> 00:01:25,785 In the first formation, nicknamed the string of pearls, 25 00:01:25,785 --> 00:01:30,723 the two spacecraft chase each other in nearly identical, highly-elongated orbits. 26 00:01:31,024 --> 00:01:33,827 This allows ESCAPADE to observe rapid changes 27 00:01:33,827 --> 00:01:37,564 in the Martian atmosphere, caused by sudden variations in the solar wind. 28 00:01:37,864 --> 00:01:41,835 When we have two spacecraft crossing those regions in the quick succession, 29 00:01:42,001 --> 00:01:46,706 we can monitor how those regions vary on timescales as short as two minutes, 30 00:01:46,706 --> 00:01:50,777 up to 30 minutes. Before we had to wait for 4 or 5, six, seven, eight hours. 31 00:01:50,977 --> 00:01:54,247 In the second formation, the spacecraft have different orbits 32 00:01:54,247 --> 00:01:57,951 that are more separated from each other, allowing ESCAPADE to study both 33 00:01:57,951 --> 00:02:01,721 the solar wind and the upper atmosphere of Mars simultaneously 34 00:02:01,721 --> 00:02:03,389 for the very first time. 35 00:02:03,389 --> 00:02:07,393 We'll have one spacecraft in the solar wind so we can measure what's coming in, 36 00:02:07,460 --> 00:02:11,898 and then one spacecraft closer to Mars. This will help us understand 37 00:02:11,898 --> 00:02:16,469 the cause and effect of what's happening when space weather comes to Mars. 38 00:02:18,138 --> 00:02:22,242 ESCAPADE will not only fill gaps in the story of how Mars’ atmosphere changed. 39 00:02:22,542 --> 00:02:26,412 It will also help us prepare to send human explorers to the Red Planet. 40 00:02:26,713 --> 00:02:31,351 For example, ESCAPADE will give scientists more details about Mars' ionosphere, 41 00:02:31,417 --> 00:02:34,888 a part of the upper atmosphere that future astronauts will rely on 42 00:02:34,988 --> 00:02:38,091 to send radio and navigation signals around the planet. 43 00:02:38,324 --> 00:02:41,761 Understanding how that ionosphere varies 44 00:02:42,061 --> 00:02:44,330 will be a really important part of understanding 45 00:02:44,330 --> 00:02:48,701 how to correct the distortions in those radio signals that we will need 46 00:02:48,701 --> 00:02:52,038 to communicate with each other and to navigate on Mars. 47 00:02:52,605 --> 00:02:56,242 ESCAPADE’s work could also help keep future Mars explorers safe. 48 00:02:56,776 --> 00:02:59,979 Atmospheres can provide a shield that protect humans and 49 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:02,015 other assets on the surface 50 00:03:02,015 --> 00:03:05,752 from things like solar radiation or intergalactic radiation. 51 00:03:05,952 --> 00:03:08,988 So, it's important for us to understand how the atmosphere is changing in order 52 00:03:08,988 --> 00:03:12,792 for us to know what we have to do to protect humans and other assets 53 00:03:12,792 --> 00:03:13,860 we might put on the surface. 54 00:03:14,093 --> 00:03:18,731 In addition to new science, ESCAPADE is pioneering a new way to reach Mars. 55 00:03:19,032 --> 00:03:21,801 Previously, spacecraft launching to the Red Planet 56 00:03:21,801 --> 00:03:24,771 had to wait years for Earth and Mars to line up. 57 00:03:25,205 --> 00:03:29,209 However, ESCAPADE is launching into a unique orbit that loops around 58 00:03:29,209 --> 00:03:32,845 a region in space known as L2, roughly a million miles away. 59 00:03:33,146 --> 00:03:37,650 Then it'll return and use Earth's gravity to slingshot itself to Mars. 60 00:03:37,984 --> 00:03:42,355 This allows ESCAPADE to launch early and wait in space until the two planets 61 00:03:42,355 --> 00:03:43,590 are in the right positions. 62 00:03:44,090 --> 00:03:47,493 This first-of-its-kind orbit will also make ESCAPADE 63 00:03:47,493 --> 00:03:51,831 the only spacecraft to ever pass through a distant part of Earth's magnetotail 64 00:03:52,398 --> 00:03:57,870 before beginning its ten-month cruise to Mars and starting its cutting-edge work there. 65 00:03:58,171 --> 00:04:00,540 NASA's heliophysics fleet 66 00:04:00,540 --> 00:04:03,543 is looking at the Sun's influence. 67 00:04:03,610 --> 00:04:08,448 And with ESCAPADE, we’ll now have multi-point measurements at Mars, 68 00:04:08,648 --> 00:04:12,018 which will help us have a more comprehensive picture 69 00:04:12,285 --> 00:04:15,288 of what's happening throughout the solar system. 70 00:04:15,855 --> 00:04:19,959 We need a solar system-wide understanding of space weather 71 00:04:19,959 --> 00:04:23,997 in order to protect our technology and our astronauts wherever they go.