Photo credit: www.esa.int

ESA’s Hera Spacecraft to Conduct Mars Flyby for Planetary Defense Mission

On March 12, 2025, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera spacecraft is set to execute a pivotal flyby of Mars, taking advantage of the planet’s gravity to alter its trajectory. This maneuver will efficiently redirect Hera towards the Didymos binary asteroid system, thereby reducing its travel time by several months and conserving significant amounts of fuel in the process.

This flyby simulation illustrates critical moments during the mission, including the closest approach to Mars’s moon, Deimos, at 12:07 GMT, followed by proximity to Mars itself at 12:51 GMT. The simulation was created using the SPICE (Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, C-matrix, Events) software, developed by a dedicated team at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC). The SPICE visualization is instrumental in planning the data collection process during Hera’s flyby.

During its close encounter, Hera will approach Mars at an altitude of approximately 5,000 kilometers. The spacecraft will capture images of Deimos, the smaller of Mars’s two moons, from a distance of at least 1,000 kilometers, and it can get as close as 300 kilometers. Additionally, Hera is expected to observe the larger moon, Phobos, as it moves away from the Red Planet. In this accelerated simulation, Deimos appears on screen about 30 seconds in at 12:07 GMT, while the more distant Phobos is revealed two minutes later at 12:49 GMT.

To facilitate these observations, Hera is equipped with three sophisticated instruments, all located on the spacecraft’s ‘Asteroid Deck’:

Key Instruments on Hera

• Asteroid Framing Camera: This consists of two backup 1020×1020 pixel monochromatic visible light cameras, employed for navigation and scientific purposes.
• Thermal Infrared Imager: Developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), this imager captures data at mid-infrared wavelengths to assess surface temperatures of celestial bodies.
• Hyperscout H: A hyperspectral imager capable of observing 25 visible and near-infrared spectral bands, used for the analysis of surface minerals.

Interestingly, this mission features its own artificial intelligence component. For more information or to engage with the mission, you can interact with the Hera Space Companion.

Source
www.esa.int