Prof Alan Fitzsimmons. Image: Queen's University Belfast
The mission is a critical step towards planetary defence against the potential threat of asteroids.
An astronomer from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) will be at ground control for a European Space Agency (ESA) mission due to launch later this month.
Alan Fitzsimmons, a professor of astrophysics at the Astrophysics Research Centre at QUB has been assisting ESA to plan the Hera mission for decades.
Hera is a planetary defence mission that will investigate the Didymos binary asteroid system, including an assessment of its internal properties, as part of the world’s first test of asteroid deflection.
In October 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) managed to alter the orbit of an asteroid by smashing into it at high speed.
Now, Hera will measure the outcome of NASA’s DART mission kinetic impactor test in great detail, which will increase our understanding of asteroid geophysics as well as solar system formation and evolutionary processes.
While the exact date of the launch is not yet confirmed, it is scheduled to happen between 7 October and 26 October.
After its launch, Hera will use a flyby of Mars next year that will place it on a trajectory to reach the asteroids at the end of 2026.
Fitzsimmons, who has spent most of his scientific career following asteroids and comets, said Hera is a critical step towards the day when humanity might need to deflect a threatening asteroid.
“Scientists and engineers from all over the world have been involved; it’s an example of best practice in international scientific collaboration for the greater good,” he said.
“It will be thrilling to get the data back from the mission and to start applying it to potential asteroid threats in the future.”
As well as serving planetary defence, Hera will also demonstrate the latest in European technologies in deep space, including autonomous vision-based navigation and intersatellite links connecting all three spacecraft that make up the mission.
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