Embry‑Riddle Students Power NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars Mission: Software, Instruments and a Nov. 9 Launch

Embry‑Riddle team helped build instruments and software for NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars mission

DAYTONA BEACH — Students and researchers from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab (SAIL) played a key role in the University of California, Berkeley‑led ESCAPADE mission, contributing high‑performance Langmuir probes and the data‑return software that will relay measurements from Mars back to Earth.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch ESCAPADE during a Cape Canaveral window from 2:45 to 5:11 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9. The mission’s twin satellites — named Blue and Gold — will spend roughly one year near Earth before heading to Mars, where they are expected to probe the atmosphere and measure plasma in mid‑ to late‑2027.

From campus lab to interplanetary flight

For three years, engineering physics student (now Ph.D. candidate) Nathan Graves worked in SAIL developing the digital systems and software that will handle the mission’s data. "In the intervening three years, I've only been doing periodic work on the software, because we designed it. It's built. There's nothing really for us to do until we start getting data," Graves said in a Nov. 5 interview.

Aroh Barjatya, director of SAIL and a professor of physical sciences at Embry‑Riddle, is a co‑investigator on ESCAPADE. He, research scientist Robert Clayton and a team of six current or former students designed the Langmuir probes that will measure plasma properties in Mars' upper atmosphere. "This lab’s claim to fame is that we build one of the best Langmuir probes in the world," Barjatya said.

Why ESCAPADE matters

ESCAPADE is part of NASA’s SIMPLEx program, which supports lower‑cost planetary science missions; UC Berkeley estimated the mission’s cost at about $79 million in 2023. The mission will help scientists understand how Mars lost much of its atmosphere billions of years ago — a process tied to the planet’s cooled core and weakened magnetic field.

“On Earth, we have a very strong magnetic field, which acts like a bullet‑proof vest for solar particles that come in, and it protects us. Mars does not have that strong magnetic field, and so when those bullets — the solar flares, the coronal mass ejections, the solar wind particles — come, they are basically able to strip away the plasma and other things,” Barjatya explained.

Studying Mars’ atmosphere offers a glimpse of what could happen to a planet if its magnetic protection weakens — knowledge that will be important as the United States plans crewed missions to Mars in the 2030s.

Two spacecraft, better science

The twin satellites provide critical advantages: flying in formation at times and on opposite sides of the planet at others allows researchers to separate changes that occur over time from differences across locations. The probes will also sample plasma at different distances from the Martian surface to build a more complete picture of space weather dynamics.

Students and outcomes

Several Embry‑Riddle alumni and students contributed to ESCAPADE. Early contributors Henry Valentine and Rachel Conway completed their Ph.D.s in May; Valentine now works at the Naval Research Laboratory and Conway remains with SAIL as a research scientist working remotely from Pensacola. Anthony Oreo, a former master's student in engineering physics, works at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Current undergraduates Ian Holland will handle data processing and Skylar Wardlaw is helping design the next generation of Langmuir probes.

“It’s definitely a full‑circle moment for me,” Wardlaw said after switching from astrophysics to engineering physics to pursue hands‑on work in the lab. Graves added, “It’s been great to work on this project for such a long time, especially getting involved in an interplanetary mission as an undergraduate student, and now it launching six years later.”

What’s next: If the launch proceeds as planned, ESCAPADE will begin its Earth‑proximate operations before departing for Mars, where the twin probes are expected to collect critical plasma and space weather data in 2027.