WEBVTT FILE 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.