This Week In Space podcast: Episode 210 — ESCAPADES at Mars

ESCAPADES at Mars - Dr. Robert Lillis of the Mars ESCAPADE Mission - YouTube Watch On On Episode 210 of This Week In Space , Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Robert Lillis of the Mars ESCAPADE mission. Poor Mars. After a warm, wet childhood, the planet dried out and became cold and arid. And why? Mostly because it lost most of its atmosphere, scraped away by solar radiation. NASA's Maven mission studied the phenomenon of atmospheric loss for years, but has now gone silent. Enter Mars ESCAPADE — the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers — twin orbiters that will study the loss of Martian atmosphere more closely than ever before. The mission has been executed at a budget price. It was largely built by industry upstart Rocket Lab, and launched on a New Glenn rocket. It will arrive at Mars in 2028, but we're giving you an early look at why it's an important and, frankly, very cool mission. Download or subscribe to this show at: https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space . Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Space news of the week Model Falcon 9! Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout , courtesy of our partners collectSPACE.com. …