Europe's first planetary defence mission begins with successful launch of Hera probe
The European space probe Hera was successfully launched at 16:52 Belgian time in Florida, USA. In Europe's first planetary defence mission, Hera will study how to protect the Earth from dangerous asteroids.
The European satellite Hera was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, the company of tech billionaire Elon Musk. The launch took place from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in the US state of Florida. For a while it looked like the weather in Florida would not be favourable for the launch, but it cleared up at the last minute.
Planetary defence
Hera's mission is to study the asteroid Dimorphos, which is millions of kilometres from Earth. Dimorphos is a rock that orbits like a moon around the larger asteroid Didymos, and is part of an experiment to see if an asteroid that threatens Earth can be pushed out of its orbit. Hera should reach the asteroid in December 2026.
The mission is a collaboration between the US space agency NASA and its European counterpart ESA. Two years ago, NASA sent a satellite travelling at 22,000 kilometres per hour to crash into Dimorphos. This succeeded in changing Dimorphos' course: after the impact, the small asteroid's orbit was half an hour shorter.
Belgian technology
Hera is full of cutting-edge technology from Belgium. For example, Redwire Space NV, based in East Flanders, designed the spacecraft's 'brain'. The system, called ADPMS-3, controls the satellite and sends data back to Earth.
Hera also carries two smaller satellites the size of a shoebox, known as CubeSats. One of them contains a gravity meter developed by the Royal Observatory in collaboration with the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Spanish company EMXYS. If Hera manages to approach Dimorphos, a CubeSats will land on the asteroid to measure its gravity.
The Royal Observatory of Belgium has also collaborated with the Flemish technology institute VITO to put a thermal camera on board of Hera. This will be used to measure the surface temperature of Dimorphos.
PHOTO © Charles Briggs/ZUMA Press Wire
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