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New Delhi: After NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the next planetary defense mission will be the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Hera mission, which is scheduled to be launched in October 2024. The Hera mission has the goals of planetary defense, technology demonstration, and performing bonus science experiments.
NASA’s DART spacecraft has made history by crashing into an asteroid, marking the successful completion of the world’s first planetary defense test. DART successfully collided with asteroid Dimorphos at around 4:44 am IST on Tuesday, September 27.
Dimorphos is the small asteroid satellite of Didymos, the primary asteroid of a binary asteroid system, which posed no threat to Earth. DART demonstrated a first-of-its-kind planetary defense technique by deflecting Dimorphos.
European Space Agency’s Hera Mission: An Overview
ESA’s Hera spacecraft is designed to undertake a detailed survey of the consequences of DART’s collision.
Ian Carnelli of ESA, who is overseeing the Hera mission, said DART and Hera were originally conceived on a coordinated double-spacecraft basis, with one mission to perform the deflection, and the other to perform precision measurements of the result, ESA mentioned on its website.
He added that the scientific consortium named Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) was maintaining the international collaboration of the two missions.
After DART’s collision with the 160-metre-diameter Dimorphos, certain parameters, such as the precise mass of Dimorphos, its internal structure, and the size and shape of the crater left by DART, remain unknown. Therefore, the Hera spacecraft will head towards the Didymos binary asteroid system in October 2024, to begin its detailed ‘crime scene investigation’ of Dimorphos and Didymos in late 2026, according to ESA.
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A ‘selfie-sat’, known as the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), which is a part of the DART mission, observed the collision and witnessed the DART impact on Dimorphos. LICIACube will study the formation of the plume generated by the impact, and characterize its structure and evolution.
Since Hera will gather data by going near the asteroid, it will turn DART’s impact experiment into a deflection technique which is well understood, and can be deployed if an asteroid, posing a real threat to Earth, advances towards the planet in future.
Hera Spacecraft: Timeline Of Mission
In 2024, ESA’s Hera spacecraft will be launched by the Ariane 6 rocket.
In 2026, Hera and its two CubeSats, Milani and Juventas, will reach Didymos to begin Investigation of the aftermath of DART’s impact.
Hera is also equipped with an optical camera, a laser radar lidar (detection system which works on the principle of radar, but uses laser light), and a thermal infrared scanner.
Hera Will Deploy A Pair Of Shoebox-Sized CubeSats
The Hera spacecraft will deploy a pair of shoebox-sized CubeSats — Milani and Juventas — which will perform supporting observations.
The Milani CubeSat will make spectral surface observations, while Juventas CubeSat will perform the first radar soundings within an asteroid, a technique which will serve as a means of mapping the asteroid’s topography, and conditions at its base.
ALSO READ | European Space Agency Is Testing JuRa, A Mini Radar To Peer Into An Asteroid
Milani will use its hyperspectral imager (system which analyzes a wide spectrum of light) to inspect the mineral makeup of the asteroid surface.
The Otto Hydraulic Bremen in Germany is responsible for building the Hera spacecraft. GMV in Spain is overseeing the engineering model of Hera’s precision guidance, navigation, and control system. This will guide the Hera spacecraft to and around the Didymos binary asteroid system.
The European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC) technical center in the Netherlands, which is ESA’s main technology development center for spacecraft and space technology, is currently testing the radar prototype of Juventas, according to ESA.
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The Juventas CubeSat will carry a compact radar, which is set to become the smallest radar system to be flown in space. But before that, ESA is testing the operation of the radar using a structural model of the CubeSat, the space agency said on its website. Juventas’s low-frequency radar is called JuRa.
When ESA’s Hera spacecraft will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system, the radar aboard Juventas will perform the first ever radar soundings inside an asteroid. The technique will serve as a means of mapping the asteroid’s topography and conditions at its base. The Juventus CubeSat will peer up to 100 meters deep within the 160-metre-diameter Dimorphos satellite of the 780-metre-diameter Didymos.
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