(NEW YORK) — NASA is set to launch twin probes to Mars to explore the reasons behind the planet's loss of atmosphere. Billions of years ago, Mars had a thick atmosphere that allowed for flowing water on its surface. Today, it is a cold, dry planet.

"From everything we know about the history of Mars through robotic exploration, it had very similar chemistry [to Earth]. It had very similar periods of time and development. It had that thicker atmosphere, had standing water, fresh water. All the things that Earth had," said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society. He added, "So, what went wrong? Why don’t we see Mars as a rich planet now? That’s exactly the kind of thing that helps us put Earth in context and hopefully makes us appreciate Earth a little bit better as an outcome of that."

One significant factor in Mars' atmospheric decline is its lack of a magnetic field, which protects Earth from solar wind and charged particles from the sun. To investigate how solar wind interacts with Mars' atmosphere, NASA, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, is launching the ESCAPADE mission. This mission, short for Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, will be the first dual-satellite mission to another planet.

The probes are scheduled to launch on Sunday at 2:45 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket. Unlike previous missions, the ESCAPADE probes will take a unique route to Mars. They will first travel to a Lagrange point, a location in space where the gravitational forces of Earth and the sun are balanced. After looping around this point for about a year, the probes will slingshot back toward Earth before heading to Mars.

This innovative trajectory could facilitate future Mars missions by allowing for more flexible launch schedules, which is crucial for potential human missions to the planet. The New Glenn rocket, which stands over 320 feet tall and is partially reusable, is designed to carry larger payloads than the company’s New Shepard rocket, which is used for space tourism.

The twin probes, nicknamed Gold and Blue after UC Berkeley’s school colors, are expected to provide real-time data on Mars' response to space weather and changes in its magnetosphere. Each probe is about the size of a mini-fridge and weighs nearly 250 pounds. Upon their arrival at Mars in 2027, they will work together to create a comprehensive picture of how the Martian atmosphere is lost to space.

Dreier noted that understanding Mars' atmospheric changes could help scientists protect Earth's climate from similar solar threats. "The interaction between the sun’s particles and the atmosphere of Mars is thought to be one of the driving reasons that Mars no longer has a dense and protective atmosphere itself on the planet," he explained.

The mission's principal investigator, Robert Lillis, emphasized the importance of mapping Mars' magnetic fields to safeguard future astronauts. Solar storms and cosmic radiation pose significant risks to potential settlers. "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 of Mars or in orbit," Lillis stated.

The ESCAPADE mission builds on data collected by the MAVEN probe, which has been studying Mars' atmosphere since 2014. Dreier highlighted that this mission is being conducted on a budget of approximately $70 to $80 million, making it one of NASA's smallest mission classes.

He warned that potential budget cuts could threaten NASA's scientific missions, including MAVEN. "It was actually looking at planets like Mars and also looking at planets like Venus that made scientists on Earth realize our climate and our planet is not this fixed, unchanging sphere. Things can go really, really, really wrong over the course of long periods of time," Dreier said. He added that understanding the delicate balance of Earth's atmosphere is crucial, as it relies on various external factors that are still being studied.