Your chance to run software in deep space on ESA’s asteroid mission

In mid-2027, ESA’s Hera mission is set to complete its primary planetary defence goals around the Didymos and Dimorphos asteroids. The spacecraft will then take on a new role – it will become a unique flying software laboratory 150 million km from Earth.

From this exceptional vantage point in deep space, Hera will enable European innovators to test next-generation approaches for onboard intelligence, image processing and AI-based operations and autonomy directly on the spacecraft in flight.

Dietmar Pilz, ESA’s Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality, comments. “This is an exceptional opportunity that will help accelerate European innovation, enabling researchers and industry to push the boundaries of onboard intelligence and autonomy. We invite Europe’s innovators to shape the next generation of intelligent, robust and autonomous space missions.

“We are looking for targeted, innovative experiments that push onboard intelligence beyond today’s procedural boundaries, while running safely alongside Hera’s flight-critical systems in a protected ‘sandbox’ environment. These ideas will help ESA mature technologies that reduce reliance on ground control, increase mission resilience, and enable more capable future exploration missions.”

By opening its mission infrastructure to innovators, ESA aims to enable the acceleration of technology development and strengthening Europe’s leadership in advanced space systems.

If you have an idea that will push the boundaries of the mission even further, submit your ideas via ESA’s Open Space Innovation Platform.

From asteroid investigation to software testing

Launched in 2024, Hera is currently on course to reach its target this autumn: asteroid Dimorphos. This asteroid is the first Solar System object to have been transformed by human action. In 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately impacted Dimorphos to shift its orbit around parent body Didymos.

When the Hera arrives this autumn, it will perform a close-up crash scene investigation to gather key data about the asteroid and its response to DART’s impact, resolving key questions which lie at the heart of planetary defence.

Hera mission manager Ian Carnelli notes: “By this time next year, Hera’s asteroid investigation phase should be over, but the spacecraft still holds extraordinary promise.

“Usually, we operate precious deep-space missions based on carefully validated procedures and frequent ground control oversight. But in this case, we are inviting European innovators to work in a real mission environment to help redefine how spacecraft might think, decide and operate in the future.

“The goal is not to hand over control of Hera, but to safely test ideas that could light the way towards more capable, more autonomous and more resilient spacecraft operations.”

ESA’s Hera software engineer Jorge Lopez Trescastro adds: “Our priority is to perform these experiments in an entirely safe way, so we are taking advantage of the fact that Hera’s onboard computer runs on a European-developed dual-core LEON3 processor.

“One core will operate the actual spacecraft, while the other has a safe sandbox environment that has been optimised to host guest software. Access to spacecraft instruments and subsystems will be fully facilitated, while the hosted software will only run for two to three hours at a time, and be shut off immediately if any problems are identified.

“Setting all this up to execute in a safe and reliable way has been really challenging, but now we are ready, and really excited to see what ideas the community brings forward!”

Call for ideas

Ideas for software experiments can be submitted via our dedicated OSIP call. The submission will need to be submitted via an outline form, for an initial ESA evaluation.

Submit your ideas here.

In mid-October 2026, the selected teams will be invited to submit their implementation package and source code in full for detailed validation, for planned operation during a one-month period during August 2027.

ESA in-orbit technology demonstration

ESA has enabled a number of technology demonstration missions, including the Proba family of satellites, culminating in the current formation flying Proba-3, and the planned Henon CubeSat for deep space exploration among many others.

These missions allow Europe to test new technologies directly in space, reduce risk for future programmes and accelerate the transfer of innovation from laboratories to operational missions. Previously, ESA’s OPS-SAT CubeSat invited software developers to run standard software in space – famously including a game of Doom!

Hera now pushes that same spirit further. Let’s see where your innovation can take us in space!