Hera, the European planetary defense mission is already in orbit

two yearsafter DART, A NASA mission will demonstrate that this is the case. it is possible to collide with a potentially dangerous asteroid and change its trajectoryNow It’s time to analyze how far it has deviated, the aftermath of the crash and what will happen to larger bodies.

The year 2022 has become an important milestone in the history of space exploration and science in general. What was proposed in science fiction movies (launching a ship against an asteroid that could destroy life on the planet and change its trajectory) turned out to be more science than science fiction, thanks to NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission.

That year The ship crashed into the asteroid Dimorphosa stellar object about 160 meters in size that orbits another asteroid (Didim, almost a kilometer long) and has changed its trajectory. Now to Hera mission (a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), this is the second part. and has Yesterday afternoon I flew to Dimorphos.

What will the mission be? Although the kinetic effect of DART was successful, it still There are many unknowns that need to be addressed. turn this large-scale experiment into a well-understood technique that could be replicated if the need to protect the Earth ever arose.

For starters, Experts still don’t know how the asteroid as a whole reacted to the spacecraft’s impact. This information is needed to understand the size, strength and speed of the probe, which is expected to collide with a larger asteroid. This requires accurate measurements of the asteroid’s mass, as well as its composition and structure.

Moreover, still We don’t know if the DART impact left a crater on Dimorphos. or if the asteroid completely changed shape, as impact simulations and recent ground-based observations suggest. Even our current measurements of Dimorphos’ altered orbit have a residual uncertainty of 10%, meaning a significant portion is still unknown and could be critical for the future. Hence Hera’s need to conduct a “detailed investigation of the crash site” of Dimorphos.

Total Hera carries about 12 scientific instruments on board. between cameras, thermogravitometers and radars. All these instruments are designed to provide space agencies with the largest amount of information and thereby carry out more accurate calculations regarding other objects whose orbit may intersect with the orbit of our planet and, due to their size, pose a danger (which, according to ESA, is from 140 meters).

The mission will also test ESA’s first CubeSats (shoebox-sized satellites), which will remain connected to their mother ship via an intersatellite radio system and allow data to be returned to Earth and receive commands while pinpointing their location. relative positions to minimize the risk of collision.

After launch, Hera will begin a two-year cruise phase. The first deep space maneuver in November 2024 will be followed by an approach to Mars in March 2025. A second deep space maneuver in February 2026 will take Hera to the Didim system. Relative distances are constantly changing as everything in the solar system revolves around the sun, but on the day Hera reaches Didymus, she will be 195 million kilometers from Earth. If you consider that when we are closest to Mars, we are “barely” 62 million kilometers away, sending the spacecraft to a point several hundred meters away and three times the Martian distance.this feat is also a significant milestone.