With companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic reigniting interest in space flight, there’s never been more interest about what a potential human-led trip to Mars might look like - or more importantly, when it might happen. In 2024, Rocket Lab will bring the world a little bit closer to that intergalactic dream, when it launches its Photon spacecraft into the great beyond, for an 11-month journey to Mars.
Led by a group of UC Berkeley researchers, the ESCAPADE mission (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, if you’re curious) is designed as part of a new turnkey program for space operations, providing a platform to do orbital work, scientific experiments and observational functions. Equipped with two satellites weighing about 400 pounds, Rocket Labs’ looks to demonstrate that advanced interplanetary science is within reach for a “fractional of traditional costs”, another step in the technology driven race to the stars.
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