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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How will ESA’s Hera mission find its way through deep space and then navigate around the Didymos binary asteroid system? The spacecraft will navigate itself in three different modes, dependent on its distance from the asteroids. From far away the asteroid pair will appear as one bright point among many, but will gradually move compared to the still background stars. The second mode will see Hera from 30 km to 8 km distance, centring Didymos in its field of view by looking for the contrast between the edge of the roughly-circular asteroid and the cold dark of space. When the spacecraft grows closer than about 8 km then Didymos will fill its field of view. So Hera will switch to identifying surface features such as boulders and craters and tracking their motion to determine the spacecraft’s own relative position.