New spacecraft will move to a binary asteroid to help protect the planet

The solar system is full of giant asteroids that run down, and even though the space is large and empty, there is a decent chance that some of these asteroids are colliding with the Earth. If a large enough asteroid strikes Earth in the right place, it could destroy millions of people, which is why it is so important to learn how to prevent asteroid impacts.

Over the next decade, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will take the first steps towards a plan of defense against asteroids. NASA will launch its DART probe in 2022, which will crush on a nearby asteroid in order to change its trajectory. And in 2026, ESA will launch its own probe to closely examine the results of the impact.

The ESA Hera probe will launch into a pair of binary asteroids that pass regularly near the Earth. This binary pair is composed of a large asteroid, dubbed Didymos, and a smaller asteroid, dubbed Didymoon. About 25 percent of the asteroids in the solar system are binary pairs like Didymos and his companion, but none have ever been visited by a spaceship before.

When Hera arrives at these asteroids, they will have already been modified by the impact of DART in 2022. As part of its mission, Hera will study the crater's impact and changes in the orbit of the # 39; asteroid. In addition, Hera will map the smaller of the two asteroids in detail using lidar technology.

The goal is to develop several new methods of observing asteroids because some of the traditional methods do not work in a binary system. For example, the ESA Rosetta satellite visited a comet named 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and measured its mass by determining how the comet affected the orbit of the spacecraft. With a pair of binary asteroids, however, this technique will not work because it will be impossible to separate the gravitational effects of the two asteroids.

Instead, Hera will observe the larger of the two asteroids very closely, selecting several distinctive landmarks and observing how these landmarks move in response to the gravity of the other asteroid. With this new technique, future missions on binary asteroids will be much more successful.

To top it off, Hera will also carry two small CubeSats, which will be deployed to test various scientific instruments as well as new communication technologies. Hera will be responsible for communicating with ground stations on Earth as well as its smaller satellite companions as a precursor to future space missions in space.

All of this means that Hera will benefit from our understanding of binary asteroids as well as advancing our planetary defense technology while operating in deep space. It's a lot for a spaceship to accomplish, but it's almost certainly in place for the task.

Source: ESA