ESA’s Hera mission has successfully executed critical maneuvers to align with the Didymos binary asteroid system, leveraging Mars for a gravity assist to shorten travel time.
As it journeys, Hera will study the effects of NASA’s DART mission on the asteroid Dimorphos, aiming to uncover mysteries surrounding binary asteroid systems and their formations.
Critical Maneuver Begins ESA’s Hera Mission
The European Space Agency’s Hera mission has successfully executed its first critical maneuver on its journey to the Didymos binary asteroid system, following its launch on October 7.
On October 23, Hera activated its three orbital control thrusters for 100 minutes, initiating its first deep-space maneuver and changing its velocity by about 146 m/s. A second, smaller burn on November 6, lasting 13 minutes, provided an additional boost of approximately 20 m/s.
These two carefully coordinated burns have set Hera on a precise trajectory for a gravity assist at Mars, planned for March 2025.
“Deep-space maneuvers are often split into parts,” said Sylvain Lodiot, Hera Spacecraft Operations Manager. “The first, larger burn does most of the work. Then, after precisely measuring the spacecraft’s trajectory, we use the second, smaller burn to correct any inaccuracy and provide the rest of the required boost.”
This successful maneuver builds on three earlier test burns conducted in the weeks following Hera’s launch by its control team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany.
The team used the Agency’s deep space radio dishes in Spain, Argentina, and Australia to track Hera during the maneuver and to precisely measure its velocity before and after each burn.
“We are now analyzing Hera’s new trajectory following the second burn,” says Francesco Castellini from ESOC’s Flight Dynamics team, the mathematical experts that keep ESA missions across the Solar System on track.
“It appears to have gone very well. We will execute a much smaller correction maneuver of a few tens of cm/s on November 21 to fine-tune the trajectory for the upcoming Mars flyby.”
A Helping Hand From Mars
Hera is on a two-year journey to the Didymos binary asteroid system, where it will analyze the results of humankind’s first asteroid deflection experiment.
The recent deep-space maneuver was carefully calculated to line Hera up for a gravity assist in March 2025 that will shorten the travel time to Didymos.
“We are very fortunate that Mars is in the right place at the right time to lend a hand to Hera,” says Pablo Muñoz from ESOC’s Mission Analysis team, who planned Hera’s journey.
“This enabled us to design a trajectory that uses the gravity of Mars to accelerate Hera towards Didymos, offering substantial fuel savings to the mission and allowing Hera to arrive at the asteroids months earlier than would otherwise be possible.”
Scientific Opportunities and Future Maneuvers
Hera will also use the Mars flyby for some opportunistic science. The ESA teams have designed a trajectory that will see the spacecraft fly past Deimos at a distance of just 300 km before passing Mars itself, offering a rare chance to study this small and mysterious Martian moon.
Hera will then carry out a second deep space maneuver in February 2026 before a sequence of rendezvous maneuvers from October to December 2026 brings it into proximity of the asteroids.
At Didymos, Hera will begin its mission to answer questions such as: How and why do binary asteroid systems form? When NASA’s DART mission impacted Didymos’s moonlet Dimorphos in 2022, did it leave a crater, or did it reshape the entire asteroid? What is Dimorphos’s internal structure?
ESA’s Growing Focus on Asteroid Missions
It’s a busy time for ESA’s asteroid teams. October saw the launch of the Agency’s first asteroid mission, Hera, and the start of work on its second asteroid mission, the proposed Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis.
Meanwhile, ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre has continued discovering, tracking, and analyzing new asteroids from the ground and recently helped to identify the tenth asteroid ever discovered prior to Earth impact.
About Hera
The European Space Agency’s Hera mission is part of an international collaboration to study asteroid dynamics and planetary defense. Targeting the Didymos binary asteroid system, Hera will closely examine Dimorphos, the site of NASA’s 2022 DART impact, to evaluate crater formation, asteroid composition, and internal structure. By combining high-resolution data and cutting-edge science, Hera aims to enhance our understanding of binary asteroids and develop effective asteroid deflection techniques.
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