posted 10-06-2024 04:21 PM               

This topic is for comments and questions in response to the updates under: ESA's Hera to rendezvous with binary asteroids.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera is a planetary defense mission that will study the impact NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft had on the Dimorphos asteroid. Hera will provide valuable data for future asteroid deflection missions and science to help humanity’s understanding of asteroid geophysics as well as solar system formation and evolutionary processes.

posted 10-06-2024 04:23 PM               

SpaceX is targeting Monday (Oct. 7) for Falcon 9's launch of the Hera mission to an interplanetary transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 10:52 a.m. EDT (1452 GMT).

Due to the additional performance required to deliver the payload to an interplanetary transfer orbit, this mission marks the 23rd and final launch for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3, Korea 425, Maxar 1, ASBM, and 10 Starlink missions.

posted 10-07-2024 07:24 AM               

Hera, ESA's first planetary defense mission, is headed to space.

Hera will fly to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System – the first body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to probe lingering unknowns related to its deflection.

posted 09-14-2026 11:52 AM               

Name our dino – ESA's Hera asteroid mission mascot!

The European Space Agency's Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence has a cartoon dinosaur for its mascot – because dinos were made extinct after an asteroid impact, but while they didn't have a space agency, people do! Now we're asking you to supply our dino with a name, to win a place at November's Hera arrival celebration.

Ian Carnelli, Hera's mission manager, comments: "Hera's dino, riding inside its air balloon, features in all our animations, in our LEGO models and, in sticker form, is emblazoned on all our team laptops!

"And what I can exclusively reveal is that our little dino is also present aboard the spacecraft itself – its appearance to be debuted around the time we reach our target asteroids.

"In the meantime our dino needs a name, and we're looking forward to hearing your suggestions! Whoever comes up with the chosen name, as selected by a Hera team jury, will be invited to our unveiling of the first images from Hera after reaching the Didymos and Dimorphos asteroids, on 25 November in Berlin."

Hera for planetary defence

Hera is ESA's first planetary defence mission. The small-car-sized spacecraft is headed to the Dimorphos asteroid, which orbits in turn around the larger Didymos asteroid. Dimorphos is already historic as the first object in the Solar System to have had its orbit changed by human action – when NASA's DART spacecraft impacted it in September 2022.

DART's impact caused a brightening and a change in Dimorphos orbital period around Didymos visible from distant Earth telescopes, but nobody knows what it did to Dimorphos itself. Hera is going there to perform a close-up crash site survey, to help turn DART's kinetic impact experiment into a well understood planetary defence technique that might be tailored against incoming objects if required.

Of dinosaurs and asteroids

Dinosaurs – currently back in cinemas in The End of Oak Street – have been a perennial cultural obsession. These prehistoric giants ruled over the entire planet for millions of years until, very suddenly, they didn't.

Dinosaurs and asteroids have been linked in public consciousness ever since the father and son Alvarez scientists deduced the otherwise mysterious extinction of the dinosaurs was connected to an enormous body impacting Earth.

This milestone discovery, today linked to the Chicxulub impact crater off the coast of Mexico, demonstrates how impact events have punctuated the history of life on Earth – and how they still pose a risk to us today.

As science fiction writer Larry Niven was the first to observe: "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space programme."

To improve on dinosaur-level survivability, ESA's Space Safety programme includes a significant Planetary Defence element, with Hera and other asteroid missions (including Ramses to rendezvous with the Apophis asteroid as it passes Earth in 2029 and Neomir to detect asteroids from orbit).

These missions are supplemented by ESA's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Frascati, Italy, which coordinates observations of small bodies venturing near to Earth to evaluate and monitor their impact threat.

So how did Hera gain its dino mascot? The Science Office company in Portugal developed the mission's animated series, including designing characters for the Hera spacecraft and its two CubeSat passengers.

Executive Director Mariana Barrosa recalls: 'We were storyboarding the initial cartoon episode and included a shot of some dinosaurs protesting in favour of planetary defence. From there came the idea: "Wouldn't it be funny if Hera had a pet dinosaur?"'

The one thing Hera's dino – riding comfortably inside its balloon – does not have is a name. That's where you come in!

How to enter

To enter the dino naming contest, fill in your own name, email, name idea, a supporting explanation and an optional video via the form linked here.

...or else email these details via [email protected]. The contest is open to any citizen of ESA Member States, Participating States and Associate States, the closing date is Friday 23 October.

The prize is attendance to the Hera first image unveiling event in Berlin on 25 November.

See our full competition terms and conditions.