When ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence touched down at its Florida launch site in its Antonov An-124 transporter, the mission’s two shoebox-sized CubeSats travelled with it. This is the moment the Milani and Juventas CubeSats made it down to the ground on the morning of 3 September.

The two CubeSats have since undergone functional testing – to check no damage was sustained from their travels – then been fuelled, and are now integrated into the main spacecraft, in readiness for a planned launch by SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in early October.

Seen left is the Milani CubeSat in its container, produced for ESA by Tyvak International in Italy, with the Juventas CubeSat from GomSpace in Luxembourg to the right.

The Milani CubeSat hosts a multispectral imager to map surface mineralogy as well as a dust surveyor. Juventas carries a radar instrument, to perform the first radar probe of an asteroid’s internal structure, along with a gravity-detecting gravimeter.

The CubeSats have been stowed in their ‘Deep Space Deployers’ on Hera’s top-side Asteroid Deck, which will stow them safely until they are ready to be deployed one at a time in the vicinity of the mission’s target Didymos binary asteroid.

About Hera

Hera is ESA’s first mission for planetary defence. Due for launch in October this year, Hera will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system in deep space to perform a close-up survey of the Dimorphos moonlet in orbit around the primary body. The Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos is already historic, as the first Solar System object to have its orbit changed by human activity, by the 2022 impact of NASA’s DART mission.

Hera is intended to gather crucial missing data about Dimorphos for scientists, to turn DART’s grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. To increase its yield of data, Hera carries with it ESA’s first deep space CubeSats, carrying additional instruments and planned to fly closer to the asteroid’s surface than the main spacecraft, before eventually landing.

Credits: ESA

Tags:   ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology CubeSats Hera Juventas CubeSat Milani CubeSat Milani Juventas

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Members of Hera’s testing team prepare for electromagnetic compatibility testing during the mission’s pre-flight test campaign at ESA’s Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Hera is ESA’s first mission for planetary defence. Due for launch in October 2024, Hera will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system in deep space to perform a close-up survey of the Dimorphos moonlet in orbit around the primary body. The Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos is already historic, as the first Solar System object to have its orbit changed by human activity, by the 2022 impact of NASA’s DART mission.

Hera is intended to gather crucial missing data about Dimorphos for scientists, to turn DART’s grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. To increase its yield of data, Hera carries with it ESA’s first deep space CubeSats, carrying additional instruments and planned to fly closer to the asteroid’s surface than the main spacecraft, before eventually landing.

Part of Hera’s testing was documented for the spacecraft team by photographer Max Alexander, who specialises in science communication through photography.

Credits: Max Alexander/ESA

Tags:   Second ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology Hera In The Clean Room NOORDWIJK The Netherlands ESTEC European Space Technology Centre European Space Technology and Research Centre Engineering

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Hera systems engineer Pedro Escorial prepares the Juventas CubeSat for electromagnetic compatibility testing alongside its Hera mothership in ESA’s Maxwell chamber, part of Hera’s pre-flight test campaign at ESA’s Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Hera is ESA’s first mission for planetary defence. Due for launch in October 2024, Hera will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system in deep space to perform a close-up survey of the Dimorphos moonlet in orbit around the primary body. The Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos is already historic, as the first Solar System object to have its orbit changed by human activity, by the 2022 impact of NASA’s DART mission.

Hera is intended to gather crucial missing data about Dimorphos for scientists, to turn DART’s grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. To increase its yield of data, Hera carries with it ESA’s first deep space CubeSats, carrying additional instruments and planned to fly closer to the asteroid’s surface than the main spacecraft, before eventually landing.

Part of Hera’s testing was documented for the spacecraft team by photographer Max Alexander, who specialises in science communication through photography.

Credits: Max Alexander/ESA

Tags:   Second ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology Hera In The Clean Room NOORDWIJK The Netherlands ESTEC European Space Technology Centre European Space Technology and Research Centre Engineering

© All Rights Reserved

Preparing Hera’s High Gain Antenna for electromagnetic compatibility testing in ESA’s Maxwell chamber, during its pre-flight test campaign at ESA’s Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Hera is ESA’s first mission for planetary defence. Due for launch in October 2024, Hera will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system in deep space to perform a close-up survey of the Dimorphos moonlet in orbit around the primary body. The Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos is already historic, as the first Solar System object to have its orbit changed by human activity, by the 2022 impact of NASA’s DART mission.

Hera is intended to gather crucial missing data about Dimorphos for scientists, to turn DART’s grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. To increase its yield of data, Hera carries with it ESA’s first deep space CubeSats, carrying additional instruments and planned to fly closer to the asteroid’s surface than the main spacecraft, before eventually landing.

Part of Hera’s testing was documented for the spacecraft team by photographer Max Alexander, who specialises in science communication through photography.

Credits: Max Alexander/ESA

Tags:   Second ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology Hera In The Clean Room NOORDWIJK The Netherlands ESTEC European Space Technology Centre European Space Technology and Research Centre Engineering

© All Rights Reserved

Preparing Hera’s High Gain Antenna for electromagnetic compatibility testing in ESA’s Maxwell chamber, during its pre-flight test campaign at ESA’s Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. To the right is seen Hera’s ‘Asteroid Deck’, hosting its instruments, including its twin CubeSat Deep Space Deployers and two white-covered Asteroid Framing Cameras, bottom, with its black-wrapped Thermal Infrared Instrument in between the pair.

Hera is ESA’s first mission for planetary defence. Due for launch in October 2024, Hera will fly to the Didymos binary asteroid system in deep space to perform a close-up survey of the Dimorphos moonlet in orbit around the primary body. The Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos is already historic, as the first Solar System object to have its orbit changed by human activity, by the 2022 impact of NASA’s DART mission.

Hera is intended to gather crucial missing data about Dimorphos for scientists, to turn DART’s grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defence technique. To increase its yield of data, Hera carries with it ESA’s first deep space CubeSats, carrying additional instruments and planned to fly closer to the asteroid’s surface than the main spacecraft, before eventually landing.

Part of Hera’s testing was documented for the spacecraft team by photographer Max Alexander, who specialises in science communication through photography.

Credits: Max Alexander/ESA

Tags:   Second ESA European Space Agency Space Universe Cosmos Space Science Science Space Technology Tech Technology Hera In The Clean Room NOORDWIJK The Netherlands ESTEC European Space Technology Centre European Space Technology and Research Centre Engineering

© All Rights Reserved