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Summary
- Rocket Lab wins NASA contract to build two small Photon spacecraft for the Mars mission, set to be launched in 2024.
- The low-cost inter-planetary mission would give better insights into the solar system.
- Rocket Lab pushes its NASDAQ listing towards the end of September 2021.
In the latest development, Rocket Lab, the American company, with 100%-owned New Zealand subsidiary, has announced that it had won the contract to design twin Photon spacecraft (to be sent to Mars) as a part of a NASA mission.
Source: © Studiostoks | Megapixl.com
Mission Mars to blast off in 2024
The launch for the Red Planet is planned for 2024. Two Photons spacecraft, named Blue and Gold, will take 11 months to hit Mars' orbit.
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The Martian mission has been titled ‘Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE)’ and will be steered by Rob Lillis from the University of California, Berkeley’s Laboratory.
The cost of the design contract has not been revealed. However, it would be disclosed once the project reaches its build stage, which is subject to NASA’s design review in July this year.
Areas of study on the Red Planet
The Martian mission will take advantage of its unique dual viewpoint to study the make-up of the Red Planet’s magnetosphere, as well as explore how the solar wind removes the atmosphere away from Mars, to understand how its climate has changed over a period of time.
NASA will review ESCAPADE’s preliminary design in June, followed by a confirmation review in July so as to ascertain the mission’s execution and flight.
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Cost-effective planetary mission
Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s Founder and CEO, expressed that generally planetary missions cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take many years to implement. This Martian mission would exhibit a low-cost and a better pragmatic approach to inter-planetary research and will hugely benefit the scientific community across the world with finer access to the solar system.
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The US listing timeframe gets extended
Earlier, Rocket Lab had revealed its plans for getting listed on NASDAQ with a valuation of NZ$5.7 billion. However, the Company has pushed its original timeframe of getting listed from the expected 30 June to September end of this year.
It is pointed out that the Martian mission is one of the three missions selected by NASA in 2019 to carry out planetary research, thereby providing more possibilities of flight experience to the global science community.
