Final preparations are in top gear to send the Hera mission, a NASA spacecraft, to an asteroid to examine what happened when a NASA probe intentionally slammed into the space rock to see if it could be knocked off. The European Space Agency's Hera mission will examine the impact site by making detailed measurements of the battered rock, Dimorphos, to help researchers craft future strategies.
With the discoveries from this week's examination, researchers can get more information to draft effective strategies for defending Earth, to forestall the possibility of an asteroid threat to the planet in the future. Reports say Hera is set to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Monday.
Details of the Hera Mission
Depending on cooperative weather conditions and against Hurricane Milton brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, the Hera mission is set to blast off Cape Canaveral's Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 a.m. EDT. Florida and large parts of the Southeast are still recovering from Hurricane Helene.
The test, reminiscent of sci-fi movies, is a real-life examination of the test to assess how much damage the asteroid wrought. Reports say the test and examination have continued for at least two decades.
Speaking about the project, Ian Carnelli, project manager for the Hera project says, “It’s been 18 years we’ve been working to put this mission together so that you can imagine our emotions, not online mine, but the whole team.” Meanwhile, the probe is set to travel past Mars in March next year and reach the asteroid more than 110 miles (177m km) from Earth in late 2026.
When Dart bumped into Dimorphos, the probe’s momentum and the force from the debris ejected from the asteroid knocked 33 minutes off its orbital period around Didymos. The collision reportedly reshaped the asteroid, sending a dust plume and rock thousands of miles into space.
Hera's instruments will evaluate the size, shape, mass, and orbit of the crater caused by the DART collision and how efficient the impact was. Additionally, the mission will send out two CubeSats for a closer look at Dimorphos, including its surface minerals and gravity. The probes will also leverage a ground-penetrating radar to assess the asteroid's internal structure.
Afterward, the CubeSats will attempt to land on the asteroid and take further measurements. While the Hera science team regards the DART mission as a highly successful one, it acknowledges that it "generated as many questions as it provides answers." Speaking about Hera's mission, Professor Gareth Collins, a member of the Hera science team at Imperial College London says the team's "hope is that Hera will answer those questions and more."
Final Remarks
European space mission, Hera, is set to examine the impact of a NASA asteroid site on Monday. The impact site was the location of a NASA probe that deliberately slammed into a space rock, Dimorphos, two years ago. This mission is set to answer additional questions about the initial science experiment generated towards securing the earth in the future from potential threats of collision with asteroids.