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How could the Hera mission team become certain their asteroid-explorer spacecraft was robust enough to be flown into space aboard a rocket? They took their spacecraft and shook it bodily, replicating the kind of vibrations it will experience on the day of launch.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft is seen here on the ESTEC Test Centre\u2019s 640kN QUAD shaker, whose metal plate is moved vertically by a quartet of water-cooled electrodynamic shakers.<\/p>\n
At approximately 3000 sq. m in area, ESA\u2019s ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is the largest satellite testing establishment in Europe, equipped with facilities to simulate every aspect of launch conditions and the orbital environment.<\/p>\n
Hera\u00a0is Europe\u2019s contribution to an international planetary defence experiment. Following the DART mission\u2019s impact with the Dimorphos asteroid last year \u2013\u00a0modifying its orbit and sending a plume of debris thousands of kilometres out into space\u00a0\u2013 Hera will return to Dimorphos to perform a close-up survey of the crater left by DART. The mission will also measure Dimorphos\u2019 mass and make-up, along with that of the larger Didymos asteroid that Dimorphos orbits around.<\/p>\n
Hera is scheduled for launch in October 2024, to rendezvous with the Didymos and Dimorphos asteroid system about two years later.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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