Agency
Hera High Gain Antenna with sunshield
This is the antenna that will transmit back the first close-up images of the distant Dimorphos asteroid since its orbit was shifted by a collision with NASA’s DART spacecraft.
The 1.13-m diameter High Gain Antenna of ESA’s Hera mission went through a week-long test campaign at the Compact Antenna Test Range, part of the Agency’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands.
Located on the exterior of the spacecraft, the High Gain Antenna is especially susceptible to accelerations during launch and the high and low temperatures experienced in space – for added protection against the latter, the antenna will be flown covered in a Kapton-Germanium sunshield, seen here, that provides thermal isolation while radio waves can still pass through it.
