Bremen-based space company OHB rejoices in the successful takeoff of the Hera mission
ESA's Hera Probe Launches Successfully, Heading Towards Asteroid Dimorphos
The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken a significant step forward in its mission to understand asteroid deflection techniques, as the Hera probe successfully launched into space on October 7, 2023. The launch took place atop a Falcon-9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, and was overseen by Dr. Stefan Voegt, Hera project manager at OHB System AG.
Hera is an asteroid probe that was developed, built, and tested by the Bremen-based OHB System AG, a subsidiary of the aerospace and technology conglomerate OHB SE. The probe embarked on its journey into space with the goal of providing crucial insights about the impact of NASA's DART spacecraft on asteroid Dimorphos.
Dr. Voegt thanked the ESA and all partners for the cooperation in bringing Hera to this point. Shortly after separating from the Falcon-9 rocket, Hera sent its first signal from space at 18:13 CEST, confirming a successful launch.
The impact of the NASA spacecraft altered the orbit of the small asteroid moon "Dimorphos". Hera's mission is to study the debris and boulders ejected during the DART impact, which added additional momentum to the asteroid beyond the direct collision effects. This boulder ejecta complicated the post-impact dynamics by potentially causing Dimorphos to tilt its orbital plane and tumble erratically.
Hera's instruments will gather detailed information on Dimorphos’ mass, composition, structure, and the larger-scale effects of the impact. The probe will measure Dimorphos' physical properties and mass to better quantify momentum transfer, map impact crater and debris distribution to understand impact mechanics, observe asteroid spin and orbital changes caused by both direct impact and secondary ejection momentum, and validate models of asteroid deflection physics for planetary defense.
By doing so, Hera will fully characterize how the DART impact altered Dimorphos and improve the design of future asteroid mitigation strategies. Observations already indicate that the ejected boulders ranged from about 1 meter to over 6 meters across and are drifting away slowly from the asteroid.
The ESA's Hera mission, launched on October 7, 2023, marks the start of a mission focused on planetary defense. Hera is set to arrive at the binary asteroid system Didymos-Dimorphos in 2026, four years after DART's 2022 impact on Dimorphos. Understanding the complexities of the impact and the subsequent behavior of Dimorphos is crucial for future asteroid deflection missions.
References: [1] ESA. (2023). Hera mission. Retrieved from https://www.esa.int/Mission_Discoveries/Hera [2] NASA. (2022). DART mission. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dart/main/index.html [3] Didymos. (2023). Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymos_(asteroid) [4] Dimorphos. (2023). Dimorphos (moon). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimorphos_(moon) [5] Space.com. (2023). NASA's DART spacecraft crashes into asteroid Dimorphos. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/nasa-dart-spacecraft-crashes-into-asteroid-dimorphos.html
The Hera probe, a project developed by OHB System AG, a subsidiary of OHB SE focusing on science, space-and-astronomy, and technology, embarked on a mission to investigate the impact of NASA's DART spacecraft on asteroid Dimorphos. Upon successful separation from the Falcon-9 rocket, Hera sent a signal, confirming its foray into technology and space-and-astronomy.
