{"id":784059,"date":"2024-06-13T07:34:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T12:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=784059"},"modified":"2024-06-13T07:34:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T12:34:51","slug":"hera-and-its-cubesats-speak-with-mission-control-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=784059","title":{"rendered":"Hera and its CubeSats speak with mission control"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<header class=\"entry article__block\">\n\t<span class=\"pillar article__item\">Space Safety<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>13\/06\/2024<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><span id=\"viewcount\">28<\/span><small> views<\/small><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span><span id=\"ezsr_total_26157666\">0<\/span><small> likes<\/small><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"abstract article__block article__item\">\n<p>ESA\u2019s Hera asteroid mission and its two CubeSats interacted as if they were in space, within the foam pyramid-lined walls of the Agency\u2019s Maxwell test chamber in the Netherlands. The trio communicated together, sharing data and ranging information at the same time as their Hera mothership received commands from its mission controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<figure class=\"article__image article__image--right\"><figcaption class=\"image__caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHera, her CubeSats, and their rocky target destination<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Testing took place inside the Maxwell electromagnetic compatibility chamber, part of ESA\u2019s ESTEC Test Centre, the largest spacecraft test facility in Europe. Maxwell\u2019s 9-m high metal walls shield it from all external radio interference, while its interior foam pyramids absorb all radio waves from the space systems being tested. The result is a location that mimics the infinite void of space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce the door of Maxwell is closed, this becomes the only place where we can operate the antennas of Hera and its two CubeSats together freely and safely,\u201d explains Hera CubeSats engineer Franco Perez Lissi.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<figure class=\"article__image article__image--left\"><figcaption class=\"image__caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHera with Milani CubeSat<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cFor the rest of the mission\u2019s test programme telecommands were being sent to the spacecraft via cables instead. We already have detailed models of how the connection to Earth and the inter-satellite links between the satellites will work, but this testing allows us to validate these models against reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The testing extended to ESOC, allowing the Hera operations team based there to operate the spacecraft remotely, and downlink telemetry and data via Hera\u2019s 1.13-m diameter High Gain Antenna, exactly as they will once Hera is in space. At the same time Hera and its CubeSats were also communicating via dedicated inter-satellite links.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hera &amp; its CubeSats tested\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dRNbnisaTSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<figure class=\"article__image article__image--right\"><figcaption class=\"image__caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tESA Mission Control Darmstadt<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Manufactured by HPS in Germany and Romania, Hera\u2019s High Gain Antenna boosts its X-band signal more than 4000-fold in order to reach distant Earth. The S-band inter-satellite links connecting Hera and its CubeSats are much weaker, comparable to domestic wifi.<\/p>\n<p>Based on software-defined radio, these inter-satellite links \u2013 supplied by Tekever\u00a0in Portugal with antennas from Anywaves\u00a0in France \u2013 do double duty: not only exchanging data with Hera, which serves as a relay back to Earth, but also supplying ranging information, letting the trio know where they are at any one time relative to each other, minimising any risk of collision.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<figure class=\"article__image article__image--left\"><figcaption class=\"image__caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHera&#8217;s High Gain Antenna<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The multi-point Doppler data provided through these inter-satellite links will also enable a more accurate measurement of the gravity fields of the Didymos and Dimorphos asteroids than Hera could achieve by itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy having everything transmitting directly through the air we\u2019ve proved that all the links can run without interfering with each other,\u201d explains Hera communications systems engineer Paolo Concari \u201cWe actually expected to see some minor degradation but didn\u2019t really find any \u2013 something called the \u2018coupling factor\u2019 where adjacent antennas can pick one another up \u2013 so ended up with very good performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<figure class=\"article__image article__image--right\"><figcaption class=\"image__caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHera and its CubeSats at Didymos system<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The test campaign also took in the initial part-deployment of the CubeSats from Hera\u2019s topside Asteroid Deck: the pair will be extended out from their Deep Space Deployers one at a time, but will remain connected to Hera until their operations and radio-links are with Hera are confirmed by testing.<\/p>\n<p><b>About Hera<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Hera is ESA\u2019s first mission for planetary defence. Due for launch in October this year, Hera will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system in deep space to perform a close-up survey of the Dimorphos moonlet in orbit around the primary body. The Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos is already historic, as the first Solar System object to have its orbit changed by human activity,\u00a0by the 2022 impact of NASA\u2019s DART mission.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<figure class=\"article__image article__image--left\"><figcaption class=\"image__caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHera mission infographic<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hera is intended to gather crucial missing data about Dimorphos for scientists, to turn DART\u2019s grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. To increase its yield of data, Hera carries with it ESA\u2019s first deep space CubeSats, carrying additional instruments and planned to fly closer to the asteroid\u2019s surface than the main spacecraft, before eventually landing.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Juventas\u00a0CubeSat\u00a0carries a radar instrument, to perform the first radar probe of an asteroid\u2019s internal structure, along with a gravity-detecting gravimeter. Its\u00a0Milani\u00a0counterpart hosts a multispectral imager to survey surface mineralogy as well as a dust surveyor.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__block\">\n<div class=\"article__video\">\n<div class=\"video__caption\">\n\t\t\tThe Incredible Adventures of the Hera mission \u2013 Testing times<br \/>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"share button-group article__block article__item\">\n<p><button id=\"ezsr_26157666_1_5\" class=\"btn ezsr-star-rating-enabled\" title=\"Like\">Like<\/button><\/p>\n<p id=\"ezsr_just_rated_26157666\" class=\"ezsr-just-rated hide\">Thank you for liking<\/p>\n<p id=\"ezsr_has_rated_26157666\" class=\"ezsr-has-rated hide\">You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Space_Safety\/Hera\/Hera_and_its_CubeSats_speak_with_mission_control?rand=771654\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Space Safety 13\/06\/2024 28 views 0 likes ESA\u2019s Hera asteroid mission and its two CubeSats interacted as if they were in space, within the foam pyramid-lined walls of the Agency\u2019s&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":784058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-784059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ESA"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=784059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/784058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=784059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=784059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=784059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}