NASA ESCAPADE双探测器完成地球借力飞掠：「金」号11月9日点火跟进，2027年9月抵达火星
加州大学伯克利分校11月9日发布消息，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）ESCAPADE任务的第二颗探测器「金」号已于当天完成地球借力点火，与先行出发的「蓝」号会合航向，双探测器均已离开地球、飞往火星。
据伯克利分校发布，「蓝」号于美东时间11月7日周六凌晨5时起、在约1700公里高度点火9分多钟；「金」号于美东时间11月9日周一清晨6时、在约1000公里高度完成类似机动。
这是深空任务首次成功实施地球动力借力飞掠。两颗探测器借助发动机点火与地球引力改变航向，进入前往火星的转移轨道。
ESCAPADE双探测器于2025年11月13日从佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角发射，此后约一年时间在日地拉格朗日L2点附近区域绕行等待本次飞掠窗口。
按计划，两颗探测器将于2027年9月抵达火星。「蓝」号先于9月9日执行约11分钟的入轨点火进入火星轨道，「金」号相隔两天跟进。
科学观测预计于2028年6月开始。任务初期双探测器编队飞行，随后分开进入不同轨道，开展为期五个月的联合观测。
ESCAPADE的科学目标是研究太阳风与火星的相互作用。太阳风是以约每小时100万英里速度从太阳流出的带电粒子流，任务将测量它如何剥离火星大气，帮助解释火星大气的长期流失过程。
任务首席研究员为伯克利空间科学实验室行星科学副主任Rob Lillis。NASA项目科学家Michele Cash在发布中介绍了该任务在日球物理学研究中的位置。
ESCAPADE由NASA日球物理学部通过SIMPLEx计划资助，合作方包括Rocket Lab、位于马里兰州格林贝尔特的NASA戈达德太空飞行中心、安柏瑞德航空大学、Advanced Space与蓝色起源公司。
今年7月3日，「蓝」号曾在距地球58.46万公里处拍下地球与月球的同框影像，NASA与伯克利分校已在先前发布中公开。
Follow Up: ESCAPADE Twin Spacecraft Complete Earth Flyby Burns, Gold on Nov 9, Both Now Headed to Mars for September 2027 Arrival
UC Berkeley announced on November 9 that the second spacecraft of NASA's ESCAPADE mission, Gold, has completed its Earth powered flyby burn, joining its twin Blue on the way to Mars. Both spacecraft have now departed Earth.
According to Berkeley, Blue fired its engines for more than nine minutes starting at 5 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, November 7, at an altitude of about 1,700 kilometers. Gold performed a similar maneuver at 6 a.m. Eastern on Monday, November 9, at about 1,000 kilometers.
It is the first successful Earth powered gravity assist for a deep space mission. Using engine burns together with Earth's gravity, the pair changed course onto a transfer trajectory toward Mars.
The ESCAPADE twins launched on November 13, 2025 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and spent about a year loitering near the Earth Sun L2 region while waiting for this flyby window.
The spacecraft are scheduled to reach Mars in September 2027. Blue will perform an orbit insertion burn of about 11 minutes on September 9, with Gold following two days later.
Science operations are expected to begin in June 2028. The pair will first fly in formation, then split into different orbits for a five month joint campaign.
ESCAPADE's science goal is to study how the solar wind interacts with Mars. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun at about one million miles per hour, and the mission will measure how it strips the Martian atmosphere, helping explain the planet's long term atmospheric loss.
The principal investigator is Rob Lillis, associate director for planetary science at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. NASA program scientist Michele Cash described the mission's place in heliophysics research in the release.
ESCAPADE is funded by NASA's Heliophysics Division under the SIMPLEx program. Partners include Rocket Lab, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Advanced Space and Blue Origin.
On July 3, 2026, Blue photographed Earth and the Moon together from 584,600 kilometers away, an image NASA and Berkeley released earlier.
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图片来源：Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons 词条主图：Spacecraft
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