The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Hera is a candidate mission to find out more about binary asteroid systems and to investigate asteroid deflection. It's four main goals are planetary defence, human exploration, science and resource utilisation.
Hera will achieve its goals by studying a host of properties of the two asteroids in the system – named Didymos and Didymoon. Such properties include the asteroids' orbital and rotation states, surface properties, internal structure and composition. Hera will also validate an asteroid deflection technique – which may be necessary if a large asteroid ever comes close enough to Earth to pose a significant threat!