ESA’s planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two worldlets, comparable in size to Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, will become the smallest asteroid ever visited.Hera is currently under study to be presented for approval by ESA’s Space19+ Council meeting of European space ministers. It is planned for launch in 2023.
ESA’s proposed Hera mission will already visit two asteroids: the Didymos binary pair. The Hera team hopes to boost that number by performing a flyby of another asteroid during the mission’s three-year flight.The opportunity arises because Hera will be flying out to match Didymos’ 770-day orbit, which circles from less than 10 million km from Earth to out beyond Mars, at more than double Earth’s distance from the Sun.In the process Hera will pass both multiple near-Earth asteroids and the inner edge of the main Asteroid Belt. Initial studies at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre have turned up dozens of candidate asteroids across different mission scenarios.
The mission to the smallest asteroid ever explored will employ the same main camera as the mission to the largest asteroids of all. ESA’s proposed Hera spacecraft to the Didymos asteroid pair has inherited its main imager from NASA’s Dawn mission to the Vesta and Ceres asteroids.
... the Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC) Hera will use to navigate through space and survey its targeted double asteroids is already built and ready. Two of these cameras – Hera will carry a pair, for redundancy – are sitting in protective nitrogen gas inside a clean room in Göttingen, Germany.
Today ESA awarded a €129.4 million contract covering the detailed design, manufacturing and testing of Hera, the Agency’s first mission for planetary defence. This ambitious mission will be Europe’s contribution to an international asteroid deflection effort, set to perform sustained exploration of a double asteroid system.
The contract was signed today by Franco Ongaro, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality, and Marco Fuchs, CEO of Germany space company OHB, prime contractor of the Hera consortium. The signing took place at ESA’s ESOC centre in Germany, which will serve as mission control for the 2024-launched Hera.
T-8 days to completion of the #HeraMission propulsion module, @Avio_Group working around the clock to deliver 💪🏼 looking forward to testing 🎛️
The first instrument to measure gravity on the surface of an asteroid undergoes shaker testing at #ESATech’s Mechanical Systems Lab. The GRASS gravimeter will land on the #Dimorphos #asteroid on the Juventas #CubeSat, itself deployed by @ESA’s #HeraMission https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space
The L-shaped GRASS gravimeter, the size of two smartphones stuck together, is designed to measure a gravity level of less than a millionth of Earth’s own. The Gravimeter for Small Solar System Objects has been developed by @ORB_KSB 🇧🇪 with @emxys 🇪🇸 https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space
GRASS is designed to measure such miniscule gravity levels as the #Dimorphos asteroid #HeraMission will deliver it to is the smallest planetary object ever to be visited by spacecraft. At 160 m in diameter it is about the same size as #Rome’s #Colosseum https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space
The #Dimorphos #asteroid became famous last year when it was impacted by NASA’s #DARTMission, shifting its orbit. @ESA’s #HeraMission will gather close-up data to better model the physics of kinetic impact for #PlanetaryDefense (pic from @LICIACube) https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space
Once by #Dimorphos, #HeraMission will deploy the #Juventas & #Milani CubeSats. @GomSpaceGroup's Juventas is equipped with a mini-radar while #Milani will perform mineral prospecting. Juventas will fall to to the #asteroid, at which point GRASS begins work https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space
The GRASS gravimeter also underwent trial by vacuum. Its week-long thermal vacuum testing inside this chamber included temperature shifts from minus to plus 35 degrees C. Next the gravimeter will be placed in the Juventas CubeSat at @GomSpaceGroup in 🇱🇺 https://esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space
The GRASS-carrying Juventas #CubeSat will then end up aboard @ESA's #HeraMission, due to launch in October 2024. Hera & its 2 CubeSats will perform a close-up survey of #Dimorphos, the only asteroid to have had its orbit shifted by human action
Our 🎁 just arrived in its new home!!!
Literally an historic moment for the #HeraMission, planetary defense and deep-space exploration! Contract signed in Sept 2020 just before the pandemic and here we are… so proud of this team! So so proud 🚀