The European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera spacecraft is designed to study asteroids in the Hera Asteroid mission, scheduled for launch in October 2024. Its target is the asteroids Didymos (Didymos) and Dimorphos (Dimorphos), two satellites of Didymos. . In 2022, the US NASA sent the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test – DART) spacecraft to collide with Dimorphos. For eccentricity, test the possibility of changing the orbits of celestial bodies near Earth. It has a chance to collide with the world and will be used as a model to protect the world if such an event actually happens in the future.
But recently, European Space Agency scientists say that before the Hera spacecraft arrives at Didymos, the spacecraft will fly by Mars in March 2025, approaching a distance of 6,000 kilometers from the surface of the red planet during its encounter with Mars. Hera will use the star's gravity to accelerate. This helps save a lot of fuel. It will also speed up the spacecraft's arrival at Didymos. Scientists also plan to use Hera to fly over Mars. Explore Mars and its moon Deimos, a smaller and more distant moon from Mars.
Information about Deimos The data that Hera will collect will be useful in planning the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Mars Moon Exploration (MMX) mission. The goal is to explore the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and the MMX spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2026 to carry a small Franco-German robotic rover. Landing on the moon Phobos, samples were then taken from the body back to Earth.
Credit: ESA Science Office
“Reader. Infuriatingly humble coffee enthusiast. Future teen idol. Tv nerd. Explorer. Organizer. Twitter aficionado. Evil music fanatic.”