NASA's twin Mars probes, Blue and Gold, have embarked on a 10-month journey to the Red Planet, carrying an Easter egg in the form of the first kiwi birds to fly to Mars. The identical satellites, designed and built by Rocket Lab, will enter Martian orbit in September 2027 and study how space weather affects the planet's hybrid magnetosphere.
The twin probes are part of NASA's ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission, which aims to aid our understanding of Mars' climate history and what was behind the loss of its conditions that once supported liquid water, potential oceans, and possibly life on the surface. The spacecraft will use a gravity assist to begin their journey and then enter into orbit at an initial altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers).
A unique feature of the mission is the presence of two name plates on each spacecraft listing Rocket Lab team members who contributed to the mission. These plaques also display the Latin initials (NSHO) of the Rocket Lab motto and form the company's logo.
Rocket Lab has a tradition of hiding kiwi birds in many areas of its design, reflecting the New Zealand roots of the company. The company's CEO Peter Beck is listed on one of the name plates. According to the University of California, Berkeley-Space Science Laboratory (UCB-SSL), which led the mission, the school's colors were adopted in 1873 - blue for the California sky and ocean, and gold for the "Golden State."
Three mission patches represent the Mars ESCAPADE mission and its partners: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), which designed and built the Langmuir probe, one of the mission's science instruments, Advanced Space (AdvSp), which oversaw mission design and trajectory optimization, and Rocket Lab itself.
The twin probes are part of NASA's ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission, which aims to aid our understanding of Mars' climate history and what was behind the loss of its conditions that once supported liquid water, potential oceans, and possibly life on the surface. The spacecraft will use a gravity assist to begin their journey and then enter into orbit at an initial altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers).
A unique feature of the mission is the presence of two name plates on each spacecraft listing Rocket Lab team members who contributed to the mission. These plaques also display the Latin initials (NSHO) of the Rocket Lab motto and form the company's logo.
Rocket Lab has a tradition of hiding kiwi birds in many areas of its design, reflecting the New Zealand roots of the company. The company's CEO Peter Beck is listed on one of the name plates. According to the University of California, Berkeley-Space Science Laboratory (UCB-SSL), which led the mission, the school's colors were adopted in 1873 - blue for the California sky and ocean, and gold for the "Golden State."
Three mission patches represent the Mars ESCAPADE mission and its partners: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), which designed and built the Langmuir probe, one of the mission's science instruments, Advanced Space (AdvSp), which oversaw mission design and trajectory optimization, and Rocket Lab itself.
they were like so common in nz back when rocket lab was founded but now there's only like a few dozen left... anyway back to these mars probes... i mean who needs liquid water and oceans on mars lol just imagine the dust storms and stuff 
280 miles high is actually pretty low for orbit... like how can they even see anything from that height 
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! Rocket Lab did an awesome job designing and building these satellites, too - they're not just functional, but also kinda cool 
. And can we talk about how rad it is to see those name plates with Rocket Lab team members' names? It's like a little shoutout to the people who made this happen 
!
Kiwi birds are literally flying to another planet now 
. It's like a symbol of international collaboration - a little something the US sent to NZ's Rocket Lab as a thank you for helping build these awesome probes 
- I mean who wouldn't wanna send some kiwi birds to Mars, right? 
. It's all about that intergalactic love and appreciation for each other's work 
. The fact that these probes are gonna help us learn more about Mars' climate history and stuff is just, like, whoa 
. And I love how Rocket Lab incorporated their New Zealand roots into the design - it's so unique! 
? I guess it's just a fun little quirk that shows they're not too serious about space exploration. But hey, who knows, maybe one day we'll have kiwi bird colonies on Mars 
!
and can you believe there are kiwi birds on them?!