# @ucberkeleyofficial on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DPo-0zNEghx
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64635374-ucberkeleyofficial-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/67eee6d65d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-10-10T19:24:12.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Berkeley (@ucberkeleyofficial) — https://gondola.cc/ucberkeleyofficial

## Caption

UC Berkeley has been sending experiments to Mars for nearly 60 years, helping scientists understand what shaped the planet we see today. But the latest mission may be a crucial step towards putting astronauts on the planet.

Named “Blue” and “Gold” after Berkeley’s official colors, the twin satellites will launch in early November, aiming to study the planet’s magnetic fields and their response to space weather — important knowledge for future explorers, because Mars does not have a global magnetic field like Earth’s to shield humans from solar storms.

“As part of NASA’s ‘moon to Mars strategy,’ we will be making the space weather measurements we need to understand the system well enough to forecast solar storms whose radiation could harm astronauts on the surface,” says principal investigator Rob Lillis of Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory.

The NASA mission is called ESCAPADE, and represents “a new way of doing things, with much lower cost, more commercial involvement, and a somewhat higher risk tolerance,” Lillis says. UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Lab and its partners built the spacecraft’s scientific instruments, booms and data processing computers on a tight budget and in record time.

The ESCAPADE probes will provide a 3D picture of the Martian atmosphere and its response to changes in the solar wind, which energizes molecules like water and helps them escape into space. That can help scientists understand why Mars lost its water 2 billion years ago, and whether any is still underground to be tapped by future colonists.

Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory will operate the satellites on their way to Mars and once they’re in orbit — the first time a university lab has served as mission control for an interplanetary satellite. And maybe one day, UC Berkeley-trained astronauts will walk on the planet’s surface, too.

🔗 Visit the link in our bio to learn more: http://bit.ly/4mU8BSu

#ResearchWithResults #UCBerkeley #Mars #StandUp4Science

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## Tags

mars, standup4science, researchwithresults, ucberkeley

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