Science News from research organizations NASA launches twin spacecraft to solve the mystery of Mars’ lost atmosphere Date: March 14, 2026 Source: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Summary: Mars didn’t always look like the barren world we see today. Over billions of years, the Sun’s solar wind stripped away much of its atmosphere, helping transform it from a warmer, wetter planet into a frozen desert. NASA’s twin-spacecraft ESCAPADE mission aims to watch this process in action by measuring how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ fragile magnetic environment. The findings could reveal how Mars lost its habitability—and help prepare humans for future missions there. Share: Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email FULL STORY An artist’s concept shows the two ESCAPADE spacecraft at Mars. The ESCAPADE mission is the first to coordinate two spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth. Credit: James Rattray/Rocket Lab USA Mars looks very different today than it did billions of years ago. Scientists believe the planet once had flowing water, a thicker atmosphere, and a much warmer climate. Now the Red Planet is frigid, dry, and surrounded by only a thin layer of air. Researchers think the biggest reason for this transformation is the solar wind. This steady stream of charged particles flowing outward from the Sun has gradually eroded Mars' atmosphere over billions of years. As the atmosphere thinned, the planet cooled and much of its surface water disappeared. NASA is now investigating this process with the ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission, which launched on Nov. 13, 2025. The mission's scientific instruments were activated and fully operational as of Feb. 25. These instruments will help scientists study how Mars lost so much of its atmosphere and how the Sun continues to shape the planet today. The spacecraft will also collect new information about space weather while traveling near Earth and during the journey to Mars. Data gathered once the mission reaches Mars could also help NASA better protect astronauts who may one day explore the planet. "The pioneering ESCAPADE duo will not only investigate the Sun's role in transforming Mars into an uninhabitable planet, but also will help inform the development of space weather protocols for solar events directed at Mars during future human missions to the Red Planet," said Joe Westlake, heliophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "By joining the heliophysics fleet of missions across the solar system, ESCAPADE will be another weather station making humans and technology in space safer and more successful." A First-of-Its-Kind Mars Mission ESCAPADE stands out because it uses two spacecraft working together in orbit around Mars. This coordinated approach allows scientists to observe the planet's magnetic environment from two locations at once, providing insights that a single spacecraft cannot achieve. The pair of spacecraft will track rapid changes in Mars' magnetosphere, the region around the planet influenced by magnetic forces. By doing this, researchers hope to identify the processes that allow the Martian atmosphere to slowly leak into space. "Having two spacecraft is going to help us understand cause and effect -- how the solar wind, when it comes to Mars, interacts with the magnetic field," said Michele Cash, ESCAPADE program scientist at NASA Headquarters. Previous missions have studied Mars' atmosphere using a single spacecraft. ESCAPADE builds on that work by giving scientists a simultaneous view from two different positions. "The ESCAPADE mission is a game changer," said Rob Lillis, the mission's principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley. "It gives us what you might call a stereo perspective -- two different vantage points simultaneously." When the spacecraft arrive at Mars, they will initially travel along the same orbital path, passing over identical regions at slightly different times. This strategy will help scientists pinpoint when and where changes occur in the planet's magnetic environment. "When we have two spacecraft crossing those regions in quick succession, we can monitor how those regions vary on timescales as short as two minutes," Lillis said. "This will allow us to make measurements we could never make before." After about six months, the spacecraft will move into separate orbits. One will remain closer to Mars, while the other will travel farther away. This five month phase will allow researchers to observe the solar wind approaching Mars while simultaneously studying the planet's response within its magnetosphere. "Prior spacecraft could either be in the upstream solar wind, or they could be close to the planet measuring its magnetosphere," Lillis said, "but ESCAPADE allows us to be in two places at once and to simultaneously measure the cause and the effect."