{"id":109822,"date":"2024-10-03T07:12:48","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T00:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109822"},"modified":"2024-10-03T07:12:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T00:12:48","slug":"esas-hera-mission-progresses-towards-launch-pending-falcon-9-readiness-spaceflight-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109822","title":{"rendered":"ESA\u2019s Hera mission progresses towards launch pending Falcon 9 readiness \u2013 Spaceflight Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_67499\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67499\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-67499\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001-Network_Hera_Milani_Juventas_landscape.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001-Network_Hera_Milani_Juventas_landscape.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001-Network_Hera_Milani_Juventas_landscape-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001-Network_Hera_Milani_Juventas_landscape-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001-Network_Hera_Milani_Juventas_landscape-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67499\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s rendering of the Hera spacecraft alongside the CubeSats, Juventas and Milani. Graphic: ESA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The European Space Agency is on the cusp of launching its first planetary defense mission, a complement to NASA\u2019s 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. The goal of these missions is to understand how Earth can be protected from a potentially destructive asteroid strike.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the Hera spacecraft, along with two CubeSats, are set to be encapsulated inside the fairings of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned launch on Monday, Oct. 7. The moment will begin a roughly two-year journey out to the binary asteroid system of Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos.<\/p>\n<p>At hand is a mission to study the impacts left by DART when it collided with Dimorphos in 2022, shortening is original 11-hour 55-minute orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes. The trio of spacecraft on the Hera mission will arrive at their target in 2026 to begin a six-month mission, making observations of the crater left by DART and collecting other data.<\/p>\n<h4>The mission that almost wasn\u2019t<\/h4>\n<p>The concept of a twin satellite mission to an asteroid was originally pitched as an undertaking, called \u201cDon Quijote,\u201d and would\u2019ve been entirely within ESA. Ian Carnelli, Hera\u2019s project manager, said that in the early 2000s, the concept was a hard sell to political leaders needed to finance the undertaking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was super difficult to sell to our decision makers. A mission that was not science, not purely technology, no human exploration, no robotic exploration. So, it was completely outside of any of the schemes that were in place,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cPlanetary defense didn\u2019t exist. A planetary defense program didn\u2019t exist in the agency and when you were explaining and trying to sell the mission to those deciding, most of the time they would laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, during a planetary defense conference in Bucharest, Romania, earnest discussions began between Carnelli and his scientists and NASA\u2019s Applied Physics Lab (APL) about the idea of visiting a binary asteroid. From those conversations came\u00a0the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which consisted of NASA\u2019s DART and ESA\u2019s Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).<\/p>\n<p>Under this mission design, AIM would arrive at Didymos and Dimorphos prior to DART and be there to witness the impact and the aftermath. Carnelli said he was optimistic about their prospects of getting financial backing from the European member states after NASA gave some funding to DART. However at a meeting of ESA member countries in 2016, European space ministers decided to put their money into other projects.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_59072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59072\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-59072\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220927dart.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220927dart.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220927dart-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220927dart-678x414.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/20220927dart-768x468.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-59072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The long-range navigation camera on NASA\u2019s DART spacecraft captured this view of asteroid Dimorphos moments before impact. Credit: NASA\/JHUAPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMinisters and colleagues and everybody was absolutely convinced we were going to get the funding. And my hope started really to build. It was a lot of effort to get even to that point, to be even tabled for discussions for the funding. It was something completely new and very emotional,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cAnd then in 24 hours, that dream just collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He and his team tried numerous workarounds to reduce the cost of the mission or simplify it in ways that would make it more palatable for funding. After nearly giving up, Carnelli said the mission\u2019s principal investigator, Dr. Patrick Michel, gave him some words of encouragement to keep him going.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[He] said, \u2018Look, we\u2019re so close. We cannot give up now.\u2019 And he gave me the little boost to make another try and so, I contacted the German delegates to the German Space Agency and said, \u2018Look I think we could still do something,\u2019\u201d Carnelli recounted. \u201cDART is moving forward. Let us continue a few more months to see if NASA actually approves DART.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That pitch got the team about 4 million euros, which allowed them to press forward while \u201crunning on fumes.\u201d But that was enough for them to get through the point of NASA approving DART and for them to get even more than they were asking for during the 2019 ministerial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 2019, we were asking for 160 million euros to cover the industrial cost and we had more than 180. So, we even had more money than we asked, which was a big relief for us,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cMade us more comfortable to work and place all the contracts. And I think the other positive side of this story is that by that time, all of the scientific payloads were very well defined. And so, when we signed the contract in 2019, everything was super clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The challenge presented by the Covid-19 pandemic the following year provided a fresh wave of challenges, not only to the workforce, but also to their supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProduction had stopped and parts were basically, not stolen, but bought by many people, much faster and stocks were depleting. And stupid things like connectors or harnesses, sometimes even brackets, I mean, very simple stuff was just not there anymore,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cSo, that was wild. That was very wild.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During a prelaunch press briefing, Carnelli said the team worked relentlessly go get the mission to the finish line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe integration team at OHB (Hera\u2019s prime contractor) did an amazing job. The last units were delivered in April, May 2024 and they managed to literally assemble the satellite in three, four months and ship it\u2026 at the end of August,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was really an amazing project and I can only be extremely proud of what we all achieved together.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Flying companions<\/h4>\n<p>Riding alongside the primary Hera spacecraft are a pair of small spacecraft, called CubeSats: Juventas and Milani. The former is \u201cdevoted to the geophysical characterization of Dimorphous,\u201d according to ESA, and the latter is \u201cdevoted to the visual inspection and dust detection of Didymos asteroid following DART impact.\u201d The size of a CubeSat is measured in units abbreviated to \u201cU\u201d that are each 10 cm x 10 cm x 11.35 cm (3.94 in x 3.94 in x 4.47 in).<\/p>\n<p>Carnelli said these two 6U CubeSats came into the picture in 2014, but were originally envisioned as 3U CubeSats. He said they need to be upscaled \u201cto allow the CubeSats to be meaningful for what we were doing, to incorporate propulsion and have enough payload to embark in the additional complexity of having the CubeSats.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_67498\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67498\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-67498\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001_Milani_scans_Didymos.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001_Milani_scans_Didymos.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001_Milani_scans_Didymos-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001_Milani_scans_Didymos-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/20241001_Milani_scans_Didymos-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67498\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This artist\u2019s impression shows the Milani CubeSat carrying out one of its main tasks \u2013 studying the asteroids\u2019 composition. Graphic: ESA\/Science Office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The DART spacecraft was accompanied by the LICIACube (Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids), which was built by the Italian Space Agency. However, because Juventas and Milani were built with contracts dealing with ESA directly, it presented some new challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we do contracts from ESA, then we are obliged to use European components from those countries participating, which means that we had to develop European radio, deep space radios. We had to develop specific propulsion systems in Europe,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cWe had to develop a lot more technology than at the time were not available yet in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Rocket ride remix<\/h4>\n<p>Part of the saga of the Hera mission was finding a ride to space. When the mission was pitched during the 2016 ministerial their plan was to use a Soyuz rocket, launching from French Guiana. Carnelli said launching before DART, \u201cwe could have done it with a much lower energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When they missed that opportunity, they had to pivot to at least a medium-lift vehicle, which led them to the Ariane 6 rocket. After some discussion about the need for true redundancy, especially given their uncompromising launch window of 20 days, Carnelli said they eventually were able to book SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 as the backup.<\/p>\n<p>When the Ariane 6 hit development delays, ESA decided in 2022 to move Hera to the Falcon 9. In order to get more performance out of the spacecraft, they will be using a fully expendable version of the Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to use basically every single drop of propellant they have on board because we\u2019re going to a very energetic orbit,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cThis will be the fastest ESA spacecraft ever launched and therefore, that\u2019s actually why we need quite a bit of propellant onboard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, following the delivery of the Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft to low Earth orbit on Sunday, Sept. 29., SpaceX said in a brief social media post that there was \u201can off-nominal deorbit burn\u201d which caused the upper stage to \u201csafely [land] in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The last time <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HeraMission?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#HeraMission<\/a>\u2018s radar-bearing Juventas CubeSat is seen with human eyes, being loaded aboard its Deep Space Deployer. The next time it is viewable will be when it is ejected into space around the Didymos binary asteroid, along with Hera\u2019s 2nd CubeSat, Milani\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KS3ahPAtVp\">pic.twitter.com\/KS3ahPAtVp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ESA\u2019s Hera mission (@ESA_Hera) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESA_Hera\/status\/1841126131627368586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 1, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>During an interview with Spaceflight Now on Tuesday, Oct. 2, Carnelli said they\u2019ve been \u201cinformed about what is the most probable cause and we\u2019re keeping our launch campaign nominal.\u201d Liftoff is targeted for Monday, Oct. 7.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re doing all we can. SpaceX is going to submit their report to the FAA, they said, by the end of the week and at that point, we\u2019ll be in the hands of the FAA,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cI hope really that we get a green light to move to the pad and launch on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper mission also set to launch during a mid-October planetary launch window, Carnelli said he and his colleagues will be meeting Friday morning with Dr. Nicola Fox, the associate administrator for NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate. They will be coordinating to ensure there is a healthy amount of distance between their two mission launches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHera is ready for launch and I heard that Clipper is also ready for launch,\u201d Carnelli said. \u201cSo, we just need to get all the pieces of the puzzle in the right place: weather, FAA and all the rest and I think we\u2019re good to go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m confident we will both launch within our launch windows.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/2024\/10\/02\/esas-hera-mission-progresses-towards-launch-pending-falcon-9-readiness\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s rendering of the Hera spacecraft alongside the CubeSats, Juventas and Milani. Graphic: ESA The European Space Agency is on the cusp of launching its first planetary defense mission, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=109822\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}