\n<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t27\/06\/2024<\/span> ESA\u2019s\u00a0Hera mission\u00a0is due to launch in October this year on a quest to survey the Didymos binary asteroid system and study the results of the first-ever test of asteroid deflection.<\/p>\n The spacecraft is currently undergoing its final\u00a0system tests\u00a0in the Netherlands in preparation for transport to its launch site in the USA. Meanwhile, in Germany, Hera\u2019s Mission Control Team recently began launch preparations of their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Based at ESA\u2019s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), the Hera operations team is a mix of ESA veterans who have worked on missions such as the Rosetta comet chaser and new recruits who started flying spacecraft last year.<\/p>\n It is this team that will take control of Hera moments after it soars into the sky and navigate it through its two-year interplanetary journey to Didymos \u2013 via Mars.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Last week, the Hera Mission Control Team kicked off the most intense phase of their launch preparations \u2013 the simulations campaign.<\/p>\n The simulations campaign brings together all the teams involved in Hera\u2019s operations. The flight control, flight dynamics and ground systems teams at ESOC will work closely with the Hera project team from ESTEC and teams from Hera\u2019s manufacturers over the next three months.<\/p>\n Together, they will practice pre- and post-launch mission scenarios again and again until they are ready for any contingencies, under the motto ‘hope for the best, prepare for the worst’<\/i>.<\/p>\n As the campaign progresses, the teams will encounter increasingly serious issues with their systems and with the simulated, software-only Hera spacecraft they use for training. These issues are not random: hidden away in a room below ESOC\u2019s Main Control Room, Simulations Officers carefully introduce subtle errors that are often difficult to trace back to their root cause.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n During one of the first simulations, for example, a member of the Hera flight control team noticed that the output from one of the spacecraft’s Sun sensors was lower than it should be, indicating that Hera might not be correctly oriented towards the Sun. The team determined that the cause was likely either that the surface of the sensor was contaminated, blocking some of the Sun\u2019s light from reaching it, or an electrical issue with the sensor itself.<\/p>\n They correctly decided to switch to the back-up sensor, fixing the issue, but it wasn\u2019t long until they faced another. The flight dynamics team soon discovered that Hera was experiencing an unexpected turning force (torque) that its thrusters had to counteract to prevent the spacecraft from spinning around. The team now had to decide how to handle this new challenge while keeping in mind all of the other limitations introduced up to this point.<\/p>\n \u201cSpacecraft operations involves a lot of problem solving and decision making \u2013 often under time pressure. It\u2019s our job to unite the team and train them to work together seamlessly,\u201d says Simulation Officer Petr Shlyaev. \u201cSo far, the Hera team are doing even better than we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Hera is the first spacecraft mission developed under ESA\u2019s Space Safety programme and the first ESA mission outside of its scientific programme to fly beyond Earth orbit.<\/p>\n As part of the world\u2019s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera is at the heart of the efforts of the programme\u2019s Planetary Defence Office.<\/p>\n The Office is tasked with detecting and monitoring potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids and comets and assessing the likelihood and consequences of Earth impacts via its Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre, and with developing methods to mitigate the danger.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Office\u2019s other projects include the Flyeye telescopes, automated telescopes with an extremely wide field of view that will scan the entire sky every night and alert human astronomers of possible asteroid detections the next morning.<\/p>\n The NEOMIR satellite will use infrared light to spot asteroids that approach our planet from the region of the sky obscured by the intense glare of our star, and which therefore cannot be seen by ground-based telescopes such as Flyeye.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n ESA also supports Asteroid Day, the UN-endorsed day dedicated to raising public awareness of asteroids, held annually on 30 June. Members of the Hera team are taking part in Asteroid Day activities this week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t30<\/span> views<\/small><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1<\/span> likes<\/small><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPutting the Hera team to the test<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPlanetary defence at ESA<\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n