An "autonomous" spacecraft could help save the Earth from asteroid collisions

The next mission of asteroids in Europe, which could be launched in 2023, will rely on the same type of navigation technology as autonomous cars.

Named "Hera" after the Greek goddess of marriage, this proposal planetary defense The mission would visit the 65803 Didymos asteroid, of a width of 780 meters, and its tiny satellite, an object of 160 m nicknamed "Didymoon".

While missions in deep space usually rely on back-to-Earth controllers to send navigation commands, Hera will feature an integrated automatic navigation system. This will allow him to navigate in real time instead of waiting several minutes to receive a command signal sent from the Earth. .

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"If you think autonomous cars are the future on Earth, then Hera is the pioneer of autonomy in far-off spaces," said Paolo Martino, Senior Systems Engineer for Hera. said in a statement. Having an autonomous navigation system will allow the satellite to fly closer to Didymos and Didymoon, which will enable it to take better high-resolution images of their surfaces, said officials from the European Space Agency. (ESA).

Much like an autonomous car, the Hera spacecraft will rely on data from sensors, cameras and lasers "to build a coherent model of its environment," said Jesus Gil Fernandez, guidance engineer, navigation and control at ESA. declaration.

Hera will not rely entirely on its autopilot for this first mission. The mission is still designed to operate from the ground up and will not start testing the new system until all major mission objectives are completed, Hera said.

Hera is part of the larger mission of Assessing the Impact and Deformation of Asteroids (AIDA), which also includes a NASA spacecraft that will navigate to the same asteroid system. . NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is to crash a spacecraft on the surface of this asteroid. two small cubesats this will examine the surface of the asteroid.

While DART's mission is break the asteroid, Hera's mission is to orbit the asteroid and observe the collision at a safe distance before descending to closely examine the impact crater. The purpose of the mission is to demonstrate a planetary defense strategy known as asteroid deflection. In other words, scientists want to know if it is possible to save the Earth from a potentially catastrophic asteroid stroke by launching a spacecraft on the asteroid to make it flee.

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