NASA双探测器将借力地球飞往火星：11月7日与9日先后实施动力飞掠
美国国家航空航天局（NASA）于 2026 年 11 月 2 日宣布，旗下 ESCAPADE 双探测器将在未来数日内先后实施「动力飞掠」：把地球引力与发动机点火结合起来，借力弹射前往火星。第一颗探测器将于 11 月 7 日（星期六）美东时间凌晨 5 时左右飞掠地球并点火，第二颗将于 11 月 9 日（星期一）美东时间凌晨 6 时左右跟进。
在最接近地球时，每颗探测器将点火约 9 分钟，实施火星转移点火，把速度提高 1,000 多英里每小时，从每秒约 6.3 英里升至每秒约 6.7 英里。NASA 表示，此前从未有前往火星的探测器成功实施过这种被称为「奥伯特机动」的动力飞掠。两颗探测器大小与标准冰箱相仿，最近时距地面约 600 至 1,100 英里，点火时正飞越南澳大利亚上空。
ESCAPADE 的全称是「逃逸与等离子体加速动力学探索者」。它于 2025 年 11 月发射升空，当时地球与火星分处太阳两侧，探测器没有直飞火星，而是先绕日地拉格朗日 L2 点飞出一个肾形回路，再返回地球，等两颗行星重新对齐后借地球引力出发。途中，任务还顺带对地球磁尾一处从未被探测器直接探访过的遥远区域进行了科学观测，取得额外成果。
完成飞掠后，两颗探测器将巡航 10 个月，分别于 2027 年 9 月 7 日与 9 月 9 日抵达火星。届时 ESCAPADE 将成为首个在火星轨道编队飞行的多探测器任务，研究时速约 100 万英里的太阳风如何与火星环境相互作用、并驱动火星大气逃逸。在两次点火前的数小时内，美国西部地区的天文爱好者有望用望远镜看到这两颗微弱的探测器；点火数日后，任务团队还将通过多次轨道修正机动，为探测器精细调整航向。
（来源：美国国家航空航天局）
NASA Twin ESCAPADE Spacecraft to Slingshot Past Earth Toward Mars: Powered Flybys Set for November 7 and 9
NASA announced on November 2, 2026, that its twin ESCAPADE spacecraft will each perform a powered flyby of Earth in the coming days, combining Earth's gravity with an engine burn to slingshot toward Mars. The first spacecraft will conduct its flyby and engine burn at about 5 a.m. EST on Saturday, November 7, and the second will follow at about 6 a.m. EST on Monday, November 9, 2026.
During closest approach, each spacecraft will fire its engine for about nine minutes in a trans-Mars injection burn, increasing its speed by more than 1,000 miles per hour, from about 6.3 miles per second to about 6.7 miles per second. NASA says no Mars-bound spacecraft has successfully executed a powered flyby, also known as an Oberth maneuver, before. At their closest approach, the two refrigerator-size spacecraft will pass between 600 and 1,100 miles above Earth's surface, with their engine burns taking place as they fly over southern Australia.
ESCAPADE, short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, launched in November 2025, when Earth and Mars were on opposite sides of the Sun. Instead of heading directly to Mars, the two spacecraft first flew in a kidney-bean-shaped loop around the Earth-Sun Lagrange point 2 and then headed back toward Earth to use the planet's gravity once the two planets returned to alignment. Along the way, the mission collected bonus science in a distant region of Earth's magnetotail that no spacecraft had directly explored before.
After the flybys, the two spacecraft will cruise for ten months and arrive at Mars on September 7 and September 9, 2027. ESCAPADE will then become the first multi-spacecraft mission to fly in formation around Mars, studying how the solar wind, a stream of material flowing from the Sun at about a million miles per hour, interacts with the Martian environment and drives atmospheric loss at the planet. In the hours before each burn, observers in the western United States may be able to spot the faint spacecraft with telescopes, and the mission team will use trajectory correction maneuvers in the days after the burns to fine-tune the course to Mars.
(Source: NASA)
来源：美国国家航空航天局
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：NASA 戈达德太空飞行中心发布的 ESCAPADE 探测器实施火星转移点火的示意图。来源：美国国家航空航天局（NASA），公共领域。 / Image: NASA visualization of an ESCAPADE spacecraft performing its trans-Mars injection burn. Source: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, public domain.
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