"Autonomous" spacecraft could help save Earth from lethal collisions with asteroids

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" in honor of the Greek goddess of marriage, this planned planetary defense mission would visit the 65803 Didymos asteroid (780 meters) wide and its small satellite, an object informally 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, Hera's chief system engineer, 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 it will not start testing the new system until all of the mission's major objectives are completed, Fernandez 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) aims to crash a spaceship into the surface of the asteroid. The spacecraft will bring two small cubes that will examine the surface of the asteroid.

While DART's mission is to break up the asteroid, Hera's mission is to place it in orbit and observe the collision at a safe distance before diving to study the crater. 39, close impact. 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.

Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow her. @hannekescience. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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