Hera – the first planetary defense mission in history

The European Space Agency is ready to launch the spacecraft. first mission from planetary protection history. This is the Hera mission, which will confirm whether NASA’s project to prevent an asteroid from hitting Earth worked correctly. as reported by Montse Avila.

‘Hera“It’s the size of a small car and is supported by two small shoebox-sized satellites, which is more than enough to analyze the asteroid’s properties. “This is a new program whose purpose is to study and promote a planetary defense system to protect the Earth from future threatsincluding asteroid impacts,” explains Ignacio TancoESA flight director.

The European Space Agency, in collaboration with NASA, is preparing to launch Geras on Monday 7 October. This will be the first planetary defense mission. “It is important to understand what exactly happened with this impact so we can improve our models and understand how they work. methodology from deviation“, says Tanko.

Despite recent failures with launchers SpaceXThe goal of the project is to analyze the impact that NASA’s Dart probe had on an asteroid in a binary system. That is, the study of asteroid deflection as a method of protecting our planet from possible collisions. “The important thing is that for the first time in history humanity was able change orbit from celestial body“, adds the flight director. And for now they hope that it can be completed successfully.