The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a design, manufacturing, and testing contract with OHB of Germany for their Hera planetary defense mission, marking a major advancement toward the agency\u2019s commitment to NASA for their joint Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment project.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s portion is scheduled to launch in July 2021 and slam into the smaller of the target binary asteroid in October 2022. Hera will then follow, launching in 2024 on an Ariane 6 and arriving at the binary pair in 2027 to assess how well its predecessor did in changing the orbit of its target.<\/p>\n
The contract signed today between ESA and OBH of Germany provides \u20ac129.4 million for a detailed design, build, and test of the Hera asteroid orbiter. The contract specifically includes the new and advanced Guidance, Navigation and Control system for the craft.<\/p>\n
Excluded from the OBH contract are the other deals already in place for the two CubeSats that will accompany Hera to the target binary asteroid and the long-lead technology items for the mission \u2014 contracts that are already underway. <\/p>\n
Unlike the first part of the joint Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment project from NASA, an impactor called DART, Hera will not impact either of the bodies of the target but rather perform long-term observations from a close orbit while demonstrating new technologies, particularly for autonomous deep space proximity operations.<\/p>\n
The target for the joint mission is the Didymos pair, a binary asteroid whose primary is 780 m in diameter and whose moonlet (small moon) is 160 m in diameter.<\/p>\n
The moonlet, called Dimorphos, is the target of NASA\u2019s DART kinetic impactor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n