ESA - Hera - Archive

ESA title

As part of the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting moonlet of a binary asteroid system known as Didymos. Now that NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique. Demonstrating new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low gravity proximity operations, Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe’s flagship Planetary Defender.

Hera Launch: October 2024

Target: Dimorphos

Hera rendezvous: December 2026

1081 kg launch mass
12 Hera payloads
2 Hera CubeSats
151 m target asteroid

Hera

Hera networking with CubeSats

The art of landing on an asteroid

02/03/2016 6931 views 36 likes

The AIM industry days held at ESTEC were well attended

AIM industry days 2016

01/03/2016 2459 views 5 likes

Asteroid Day 2016 press event

Enabling & Support

Asteroid Day events to span globe on 30 June

09/02/2016 4847 views 41 likes

Chelyabinsk sky rendering

Asteroid Day press conference participants

29/01/2016 4328 views 11 likes

Chelyabinsk asteroid trail

Asteroid Day incoming on 30 June

29/01/2016 12140 views 102 likes

Camera by model asteroid

Robot arm simulates close approach of ESA’s asteroid mission

08/12/2015 5390 views 84 likes

AIM and CubeSats watch impact

CubeSat companions for ESA’s asteroid mission

02/11/2015 12047 views 110 likes

2015 TB145: The small, moving dot at centre

Halloween asteroid gives us a miss, confirms ESA

28/10/2015 22035 views 127 likes

Using its laser altimeter Hera scans Didymoon's surface

AIMing a light across millions of kilometres

13/10/2015 8654 views 101 likes

AIM mission objectives

The AIM of the Meeting

22/09/2015 1567 views 4 likes

Right on target

22/09/2015 1661 views 2 likes

Chelyabinsk sky rendering

Helping Europe prepare for asteroid risk

30/06/2015 6773 views 66 likes

Infrared imaging of the impact crater

Telescopes focus on target of ESA’s asteroid mission

30/06/2015 6770 views 65 likes

Hera arriving at Didymos

Optimisation experts challenged to set course of future mis…

29/06/2015 656 views 3 likes

Hera in orbit

Design begins for ESA's Asteroid Impact Mission

15/04/2015 4156 views 37 likes

Asteroid collision

Enabling & Support

ESA’s planetary defence test set for 2020

31/03/2015 21602 views 136 likes

AIM at binary asteroid system

Enabling & Support

CubeSats offered deep-space ride on ESA asteroid probe

26/02/2015 12724 views 97 likes

AIDA mission concept

Enabling & Support

Asteroid deflection mission seeks smashing ideas

15/01/2013 15733 views 60 likes

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