Hera - ESA

[Flyaway]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1660591274930339840

View: https://twitter.com/esa_tech/status/1660591274930339840

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

https://twitter.com/x/status/1660591282329092096

View: https://twitter.com/esa_tech/status/1660591282329092096

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

https://twitter.com/x/status/1660591289627299843

View: https://twitter.com/esa_tech/status/1660591289627299843

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

https://twitter.com/x/status/1660591296686309376

View: https://twitter.com/esa_tech/status/1660591296686309376

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

View: https://youtu.be/MErloMuo55o

 

[Flyaway]

Hera in the doghouse

Hera in the doghouse

www.esa.int

 

[Grey Havoc]

Hera spacecraft to visit Dimorphos asteroid that humans knocked off course

The mission aims to re-visit the asteroid Nasa diverted when it crashed a probe into it.

www.bbc.com

 

[Forest Green]

Europe launches space mission in defense against city-killer asteroids

The Hera mission will investigate the result of NASA’s asteroid redirection test, in which the U.S. agency rammed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos.

www.defensenews.com

 

[Grey Havoc]

Hera deployed:

View: https://youtu.be/gtN0IJNorN4?si=SVcJ1hPkWNKk3cl3

 

[publiusr]

It would have been nice if the spent stage had also been an impactor

 

[Flyaway]

Hera takes flight: Didymos, here we come

The day began with an 85% chance that bad weather would cause a launch delay: it ended with ESA’s Hera mission successfully in space and en route to the Didymos binary asteroid system.At 16:52 CEST (14:52 UTC) on 7 October 2024, Hera took to the skies aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape...

www.esa.int

 

[Flyaway]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1849715972355010584

View: https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1849715972355010584

On 23 October, @ESA_Hera fired its three orbital control thrusters for ~100 minutes to line it up for next year's gravity assist at Mars. A second, smaller burn on 6 November will be used to iron out any inaccuracy from the first.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1849829439267381607

View: https://twitter.com/deepbluedot/status/1849829439267381607

#HeraMission updates
TIRI, AFC and Hyperscout-H commissioned
deep-space manoeuvre #1 performed: 145.84 m/s in a bit less than 100 minutes
Milani and Juventas commissioned through the CubeSat Mission Operation Center (CMOC)

what an amazing mission, so proud!

 

[Flyaway]

Watch live: Images from Hera’s Mars flyby [Mar 10]

On Wednesday 12 March 2025 Hera – ESA's first Space Safety mission – comes to within 5000 km of the surface of the red planet and 300 km of Mars’s more distant and enigmatic moon Deimos.

During this flyby Hera is performing observations of both Mars and the city-sized Deimos.

Hera then needs to swing its High Gain Antenna back to Earth to transmit its data home.

The next day, on Thursday 13 March, these images will be premiered by Hera’s science team from ESA’s ESOC mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, explaining what they reveal, during our public webcast starting at 11:50 CET.

The team is being joined by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and renowned science fiction writer Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary, as well as a surprise special guest!

Three Hera instruments are being used during the flyby, imaging Deimos from a minimum distance of 1000 km away:
• Hera’s black and white 1020x1020 Asteroid Framing Camera used for both navigation and scientific investigation acquires images in visible light.
• Hera’s Hyperscout H hyperspectral imager observes in a range of colours beyond the limits of the human eye, in 25 visible and near-infrared spectral bands, to help characterise mineral makeup.
• Hera’s Thermal Infrared Imager, supplied by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) images at the mid-infrared wavelengths to chart surface temperature, in the process revealing physical properties such as roughness, particle size distribution and porosity.

Results from the Deimos close encounter should help guide operational planning for next year’s Martian Moons eXploration Mission, MMX, being led by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in collaboration with NASA, the French space agency CNES, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and ESA.

MMX will not only collect detailed measurements of both martian moons but also land on Phobos to collect a sample and return it to Earth for analysis.

With Didymos being 780 m across and Dimorphos just 151 m across, Hera’s twin destinations are many times smaller than the city-sized Deimos moon, but Hera is headed on course towards them. A series of ‘impulsive rendezvous’ thruster firings during October 2026 will fine-tune its heading to reach the Didymos system that December.

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[NMaude]

Here's an official ESA short video concerning the Mars flyby:

On Wednesday 12 March 2025 ESA’s Hera spacecraft for planetary defence performs a flyby of Mars. The gravity of the red planet shifts the spacecraft’s trajectory towards its final destination of the Didymos binary asteroid system, shortening its trip by months and saving substantial fuel.

Watch the livestream release of images from Hera’s flyby by the mission’s science team on Thursday 13 March, starting at 11:50 CET!

Hera comes to around 5000 km from the surface of Mars during its flyby. It will also image Deimos, the smaller of Mars’s two moons, from a minimum 1000 km away (while venturing as close as 300 km). Hera will also image Mars’s larger moon Phobos as it begins to move away from Mars.

Launched on 7 October 2024, Hera on its way to visit the first asteroid to have had its orbit altered by human action. By gathering close-up data about the Dimorphos asteroid, which was impacted by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022,

Hera will help turn asteroid deflection into a well understood and potentially repeatable technique. Hera will reach the Didymos asteroid and its Dimorphos moonlet in December 2026. By gathering crucial missing data during its close-up crash scene investigation, Hera will turn the kinetic impact method of asteroid deflection into a well understood technique that could potentially be used for real when needed.

Credit: ESA-Science Office

 

[Flyaway]

Deimos seen by Hera:

View: https://youtu.be/EaIN5qz9oMA?si=0RUsB3FXxn4osQWo


Looks like a giant lump of coal.