The European Space Agency's Hera asteroid probe has successfully completed two engine burns, setting it on course for a Mars flyby in March 2025. This maneuver will provide a gravity assist to accelerate Hera towards the Didymos binary asteroid system, where it will study the aftermath of NASA's DART mission's impact on Dimorphos. The spacecraft, which launched on October 7, 2023, will also conduct scientific observations of Mars' moons, Deimos and Phobos, during its flyby.
The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft, en route to study a binary asteroid system, captured thermal images of Earth and the moon from 2.3 million miles away. These images were taken during the initial testing of Hera's Thermal Infrared Imager, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Launched on October 7, Hera aims to reach the site of NASA's 2022 Double Asteroid Redirect Mission (DART) by 2026, where it will study the aftermath of DART's collision with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, providing insights into planetary defense strategies.
NASA has selected a new crew of four volunteers to participate in a 45-day simulated mission to Mars within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The crew will live and work like astronauts, carrying out scientific research and operational tasks, including a virtual reality "walk" on Mars's surface. The mission aims to study how crew members adapt to isolation, confinement, and remote conditions before NASA sends astronauts on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. This crew is the second group of volunteers to participate in a simulated Mars mission in HERA this year, with the final HERA crew slated to wrap up on Dec. 20.
NASA has selected a crew of four volunteers for a simulated mission to Mars inside the HERA facility in Houston, allowing scientists to study how crew members adapt to the isolation, confinement, and work conditions astronauts will experience during future spaceflight missions. The crew will participate in 18 human health studies, including international collaborations, and conduct science, operational, and maintenance tasks while facing communication delays with the outside world. The upcoming mission marks the first of four simulated missions to Mars using HERA in 2024, with each mission including a different crew of four astronaut-like research volunteers.
The European Space Agency's Hera asteroid mission, designed for planetary defense, has reached a significant milestone as its two halves, the Core Module and Propulsion Module, have been successfully mated together at OHB Bremen in Germany. The spacecraft will now undergo full-scale testing to ensure its readiness for space. Hera's mission is to perform a close-up survey of the crater left by the DART mission's impact on the Dimorphos asteroid and measure the mass and composition of Dimorphos and its larger counterpart, Didymos. The spacecraft is scheduled to lift off in October 2024.
