The European Space Agency’s asteroid deflection mission is a go.
Hera—”humanity’s first-ever spacecraft to visit a double asteroid”—has been greenlit for construction and launch as part of the organization’s broader planetary defense initiatives.
Named for the Greek goddess of marriage, Hera will steer itself through space, autonomously navigating as close as 218 yards from the smaller of the two planetoids: 350-foot-wide Didymos B—affectionately known as the “Didymoon.”
Small asteroids hit Earth almost daily, but most break and burn in the upper atmosphere, leaving no discernable traces on our world. Objects larger than 0.6 miles—like the Chelyabinsk meteor, caused by an approximately 22-yard near-Earth asteroid—can have devastating effects.
In hopes of avoiding disaster, NASA recently began developing a spacecraft to pummel asteroids and knock them off a course for our planet.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is set to be the first space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor (i.e. strike the satellite to shift its orbit).
In October 2022, the refrigerator-sized craft is expected to navigate to the asteroid system and use an onboard autonomous targeting system to aim itself at the Didymoon.
That’s when the fireworks start: DART strikes the planetoid at a speed nine times faster than a bullet—about 3.7 miles per second—jolting it ever so slightly off balance.
Earth-based observatories can then see the impact and watch the change in orbit of Didymos B around Didymos A, allowing scientists to “better determine the capabilities of kinetic impact as an asteroid mitigation strategy,” according to NASA.
Due for an autumn 2023 launch, and set to reach its target three years later, Hera will navigate in three different modes as it inches closer to the binary asteroid system.
Two on-board CubeSats can fly much closer to the surface, carrying out scientific studies before touching down.
“Up-close observations will turn asteroid deflection into a well-understood planetary defense technique,” ESA said.
DART and Hera are both part of the international Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission.
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