The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission took off this Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, powered by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bound for the asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits another larger , Didymos. Its objective is to analyze the effects of the collision of the DART spacecraft on the asteroid in 2022 (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) from NASA and studies the deflection of asteroids as a method to protect our planet from possible impacts.
The launch is part of the international NASA-ESA collaboration called AIDA (Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment) and is ESA’s first planetary defense mission. Hera will arrive at Dimorphos at the end of 2026 and will carry out a detailed study after the controlled collision of a ship against this asteroid of approximately 150 meters in diameter, which was the first object in the solar system whose orbit around the main body was modified by the human activity.
Hera’s goal now is to gather the crucial missing data to prove that kinetic deflection is a reliable planetary defense technique. To reach its destination, reports the Sinc agency, the ship will have to carry out a gravitational maneuver on Mars in 2025 to accelerate and reach its final objective, where it will discover the effectiveness of the impact of DART, it will contribute to a better understanding of physics of this shock or the internal properties of asteroids, according to Michael Kueppers, ESA scientist on this project.
With the help of two cubesats
The observations of the Hera probe will be supplemented by the deployment of a pair of small satellites or cubesats the size of a shoebox: Milani will record spectral data from the surface, while Juventas will carry out the first radar surveys ever carried out on an asteroid.
By gathering information about the mass, composition and crater left by DART on Dimorphos, scientists will be able to evaluate as comprehensively as possible the effectiveness of the diversion technique used. The Hera data will enable asteroid-scale impact models to be validated or refined for the first time, leaving this planetary defense technique ready for use.
Data from Hera, named in honor of the Greek goddess of marriage, will make it possible for the first time to validate or refine numerical impact models at the asteroid scale, leaving this planetary defense technique ready for use. be used if it proves necessary to save the Earth.
The asteroid system that will be analyzed is a prototype among thousands that could present a risk of impact against our planet. If a 150 meter asteroid – known as city killer (city killers) – could wipe out a city like Madrid, even if it’s not big enough to affect the entire country, according to Tanco.
Spanish participation
The Hera space probe, equipped with a dozen instruments, had a budget of 363 million euros. It was built by the OHB space and technology group in Germany, with contributions from 18 European countries and Japan.
From Spain, the GMV company led an international consortium to develop the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system, which includes the analysis part of Hera’s proximity operations and the cubesat Juventus. The EMXYS company participated in the electronics of the latter’s GRASS gravimeter. For its part, SENER produced low-gain antennas and Thales Alenia Space Spain designed mission communication subsystems.
