The European Space Agency's Hera mission will arrive at Didymos more than four years after the DART probe slammed into one of the space rocks.
The Didymos duo will become the best explored space rocks in the universe when the dust from the experiment settles.
The original plan was for Hera to reach Didymos before DART, which slammed into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos. Hera was supposed to be the witness of the milestone experiment, which was designed to prove the "kinetic impact" technique that could save Earth from a devastating asteroid strike. Delays in the approval process and a late funding decision caused Hera to be disqualified from that role.
It is expected that Hera will reach Didymos in the late 20th century. They argue that the study would not be complete without Hera's measurement. If there is ever a need to ward off an asteroid strike on Earth, there needs to be answers to these questions.
How big is a space rock?
"Hera will measure the mass of Dimorphos, which will give us a more accurate estimate of how efficient this technique was in redirecting the asteroid," Michael Kueppers, Hera project scientist at the European Space Agency said in a news conference. The physical properties of the asteroids will be studied. If we need to use this technique to avoid a catastrophe on Earth, we'll need strength and porosity.
The Didymos system is being observed by hundreds of ground-based telescopes with the goal of determining how much the DART impact changed the system. The two most powerful space telescopes are helping to make the observations.
The images of the impact and aftermath were taken hundreds of miles away. The LICIACube's official science mission ended after it performed a flyby of Dimorphos. The cubesat may be able to do more in the coming weeks, but with its two relatively basic cameras, there were always limits.
The principal investigator at the Hera University in France said at the news conference thatmorphos is a very low gravity environment. "Because the gravity is so small, the crater can take hours to form, so we need another investigator that comes on the site and gives us the final outcome details."
To gather these details, Hera will use a lidar sensor, thermal camera, and optical camera to map the surface of the two asteroids with great precision. Two cubesats, named Juventas and Milani, will join Hera on its mission.
According to the European Space Agency, Juventas will carry a special instrument that will allow it to peek inside the asteroids. Milani will look at the asteroid's surface in near-IR.
It will be the first time that we will look at the internal properties of an asteroid and see how they affect the impact. We hope to touch down on the surface of the asteroid with at least one of the two cubesats.
With images taken just before the impact by DART's own DRACO camera, LICIACube's observations of the crash and its immediate aftermath, and Hera's detailed investigation of the long-term outcomes, scientists will have three necessary parameters to fully understand the effects of the crash
Ian Carnelli said in the news conference that Hera is being put together in Italy and Germany. By the end of next year, the spaceship will be complete and ready to begin an extensive campaign of tests.
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