Rocket Lab booked for mission to Mars
Wednesday, 16 June 2021
Rocket Lab has won a contract to design two small spacecraft that will be put in orbit around Mars.
However, it won’t be launching the satellites itself.
Instead, the Photon spacecraft will be getting a lift to Mars on a rocket provided by Nasa.
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The mission has been booked by the University of California’s Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory which will use the spacecraft to investigate the area of space around Mars affected by the planet’s “unique magnetic field”.
They will explore how the solar wind strips atmosphere away from Mars, to better understand how its climate has changed over time.
Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said planetary science missions had “traditionally cost hundreds of millions of dollars and taken up to a decade to come to fruition”.
“Our Photon spacecraft will demonstrate a more cost-effective approach to planetary exploration that will increase the science community’s access to our solar system for the better,” he said.
Earlier this year, Rocket Lab announced plans to list on the United States’ Nasdaq exchange with a valuation of US$4.1 billion (NZ$5.7b) through a reverse takeover by listed shell company Vector Acquisition Corporation.
Rocket Lab spokeswoman Morgan Bailey confirmed on Wednesday it would miss its original target of completing the listing by the end of this month, and the listing would now take place before the end of September.