A spacecraft belonging to NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission successfully imaged Earth and the Moon on July 3. At the time of the capture, the probe was positioned approximately 363,250 miles from Earth and 115,600 miles from the Moon.

The images were produced using the Visible and Infrared Observation System cameras, developed by Northern Arizona University. While visible light sensors captured both bodies as crescents with roughly 8% illumination, the thermal infrared sensors revealed the heat signatures of the planets. Earth’s shadowed side registered temperatures between minus 10 and minus 44 degrees Fahrenheit, while the Moon’s far side measured significantly colder at minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit.

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According to Rob Lillis, the mission’s principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley, these images serve as a vital calibration exercise. “Since Earth and the Moon are well-known targets, imaging them provides an important calibration check for ESCAPADE’s cameras,” Lillis noted. The cameras are ultimately intended to study Martian auroras and surface thermal properties upon the mission's arrival at Mars in September 2027.

The ESCAPADE spacecraft, manufactured by Rocket Lab, are currently stationed near Lagrange point 2. They are scheduled to perform a gravity-assist flyby of Earth in November 2026 to propel them toward their final destination. Once at Mars, the mission will analyze how solar wind contributes to atmospheric loss on the planet.

Source: NASA