Hera
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.
Launch: 7 October 2024
Target: Asteroid Dimorphos
Rendezvous: December 2026
- 151mtarget asteroid
- 1stbinary asteroid survey
- 12payloads
- 2CubeSats
Latest
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Hera planetary defence mission: solving asteroid mysteries
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Hera asteroid mission - launch highlights
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Images from Hera’s Mars flyby (Official broadcast)
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Hera trajectory to Didymos
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DART asteroid impact impresses in ESA’s view from the ground
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Hera’s navigation around the asteroids
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Look inside ESA’s Hera asteroid mission
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The Incredible Adventures of the Hera mission – Presenting Hera
