Hera Highlights
Examining the first test of asteroid deflection, performing the first survey of a binary asteroid system
As part of the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting moonlet of a binary asteroid system known as Didymos. Now that NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique. Demonstrating new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low gravity proximity operations, Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe’s flagship Planetary Defender.
Hera Launch: October 2024
Target: Dimorphos
DART impact date: 26 September 2022
Hera rendezvous: December 2026
- 1081 kg launch mass
- 12 Hera payloads
- 2 Hera CubeSats
- 150 m target asteroid
