Escape, Plasma and Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) – Enabling a Low-Cost Mars Mission

The Escape, Plasma and Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission will provide a comprehensive picture of how solar wind energy flows through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere to drive ion and sputtering escape. The mission has undergone several transformations to accommodate evolving launch constraints, highlighting its resilience and offering valuable insights for designing low-cost, adaptable Mars missions. This paper describes why and how ESCAPADE has pivoted, how the mission design accommodated the change, and what lessons have been learned. The objective is to illuminate how to design launch resiliency into a low-cost Mars mission.