ESA Top Multimedia
Space Team Europe for Hera: Margherita Cardi
Margherita Cardi, Milani Programme Manager at Tyvak International, enthusiastically shares with us a behind-the-scenes look at the CubeSat named after Andrea Milani: the first scientist to propose a two-part mission involving an impactor craft to strike an asteroid followed up by a reconnaissance mission to gather data for a scientific study. Cardi explains why Milani, and the other CubeSat Juventas, can take more risks and get closer to the asteroid than Hera.
Hera is ESA's first planetary defence mission, heading to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System. On 26 September 2022 NASA’s DART mission performed humankind’s first test of asteroid deflection by crashing into the Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos moonlet. The result was a shift in its orbit around the mountain-sized Didymos main asteroid.
Now comes ESA’s own contribution to this international collaboration: the Hera mission will revisit Dimorphos to gather vital close-up data about the deflected body.
Hera's first images (Thermal Infrared Imager)
Hera's first images (Thermal Infrared Imager)Earth from Space: Hardap Dam, Namibia
Resembling a Martian-like surface, this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows part of the Hardap region in south-central Namibia on the western edge of the Kalahari Desert.Starbursts on grand scale
Starbursts on grand scaleThe Hera team assembles inside the Main Control Room
The Hera team assembles inside the Main Control RoomHubble and New Horizons view of Uranus
Hubble and New Horizons view of UranusClose-up of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (December 2023 to March 2024)
Close-up of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (December 2023 to March 2024)Sound of Earth’s magnetic flip 41 000 years ago
Approximately 41 000 years ago, Earth’s magnetic field briefly reversed during what is known as the Laschamp event. During this time, Earth’s magnetic field weakened significantly—dropping to a minimum of 5% of its current strength—which allowed more cosmic rays to reach Earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark and the German Research Centre for Geosciences used data from ESA’s Swarm mission, along with other sources, to create a sounded visualisation of the Laschamp event. They mapped the movement of Earth’s magnetic field lines during the event and created a stereo sound version which is what you can hear in the video.
The soundscape was made using recordings of natural noises like wood creaking and rocks falling, blending them into familiar and strange, almost alien-like, sounds. The process of transforming the sounds with data is similar to composing music from a score.
Data from ESA’s Swarm constellation are being used to better understand how Earth’s magnetic field is generated. The satellites measure magnetic signals not only from the core, but also from the mantle, crust, oceans and up to the ionosphere and magnetosphere. These data are crucial for studying phenomena such as geomagnetic reversals and Earth’s internal dynamics.
The sound of Earth’s magnetic field, the first version of the magnetic field sonification produced with Swarm data, was originally played through a 32-speaker system set up in a public square in Copenhagen, with each speaker representing changes in the magnetic field at different places around the world over the past 100 000 years.
Space Team Europe for Hera: Patrick Michel
Patrick Michel, Hera Principal Investigator at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), describes in this video his long professional relationship with asteroids. He explains that they can be simultaneously our enemies – a danger from time to time – and our friends – tellers of Solar System history. He considers Hera as a detective returning to the scene of a crime (the DART collision) to carry out an investigation to discover what happened and decipher the interior structure of these small bodies. Are they as our models predict?
Hera is ESA's first planetary defence mission, heading to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System. On 26 September 2022 NASA’s DART mission performed humankind’s first test of asteroid deflection by crashing into the Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos moonlet. The result was a shift in its orbit around the mountain-sized Didymos main asteroid.
Now comes ESA’s own contribution to this international collaboration: the Hera mission will revisit Dimorphos to gather vital close-up data about the deflected body.
The successful recovery of the Juice RIME antenna deployment - ESA Expert Lecture 57
Following the launch of ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (Juice) on 14 April 2023, the spacecraft had to ‘unfold’ itself in space. This included extending the 16-metre RIME antenna. RIME, short for Radar for Icy Moon Exploration, is an ice-penetrating radar instrument to study the subsurface structure of Jupiter’s icy moons down to a depth of around nine kilometres.
But RIME did not deploy as expected. The ESA and Airbus Juice teams worked hard to seek out the origin of the problem and solve it. A month later, on 12 May 2023, the antenna was successfully deployed.
In this technical presentation recorded on 20 June 2024, Ronan Le Letty (ESA) explains the complex problems around the RIME antenna deployment and how it was solved. Giuseppe Sarri, former Juice Project Manager at ESA shortly presents the context and David Monteiro, former Product Assurance Manager for Juice at ESA presents some final thoughts at the end of the presentation.
This talk is part of the ESA expert lectures with the support of ESA Knowledge Management.
Periglacial landforms in perspective (3)
Periglacial landforms in perspective (3)Sentinel-1C on its way to Europe's Spaceport
European settings for a Moon camera
Innovation & opportunity at the CubeSat Summer School Networking Day
The CubeSat Summer School Networking Day offers a wealth of opportunities for both university students and space-based SMEs. Space start-ups meet up-and-coming talent; industry-led panels discuss the state-of-the-art; and networking coffee breaks lead to those valuable, informal conversations.
Students' POV on ESA's CubeSat Summer School
Hear from students who attended ESA Academy's CubeSat Summer School, a multi-week training opportunity designed for university students with either engineering, physics or business administration backgrounds who are highly motivated to participate in a CubeSat project or pursue a career in the space sector. The most recent edition took place over four weeks in August 2024 at ESA's educational centre in Belgium.
What to expect at ESA's CubeSat Summer School
ESA Academy's CubeSat Summer School is a multi-week training opportunity designed for university students with either engineering, physics or business administration backgrounds who are highly motivated to participate in a CubeSat project or pursue a career in the space sector, but currently lack knowledge or experience within this area. The most recent edition took place over four weeks in August 2024 at ESA's educational centre in Belgium.
Space Team Europe for Hera: Heli Greus
Heli Greus, Hera Product Assurance and Safety Manager at ESA, presents Hera and its instruments before the spacecraft left the Agency’s technical heart in the Netherlands. Her contribution to the mission is to make sure that whatever goes insite Hera will survive the space environment. To her, the biggest challenge was combining Hera with the CubeSats Juventas and Milani, which follow industrial rules and a ‘NewSpace’ approach.
Hera is ESA's first planetary defence mission, heading to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System. On 26 September 2022 NASA’s DART mission performed humankind’s first test of asteroid deflection by crashing into the Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos moonlet. The result was a shift in its orbit around the mountain-sized Didymos main asteroid.
Now comes ESA’s own contribution to this international collaboration: the Hera mission will revisit Dimorphos to gather vital close-up data about the deflected body.
ESA's Hera mission launch (Official broadcast)
ESA’s first planetary defence spacecraft has departed planet Earth. The Hera mission is headed to a unique target among the more than 1.3 million known asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering mysteries associated with its deflection.
By sharpening scientific understanding of the ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, Hera aims to make Earth safer. The mission is part of a broader ambition to turn terrestrial asteroid impacts into a fully avoidable class of natural disaster.
Rencontres en apESAnteur : les missions de défense planétaire
Captation de la conférence « Rencontres en apESAnteur » sur le thème des missions de défense planétaire qui se déroulait le 20 septembre 2024 au siège de l’ESA situé à Paris.
Il s’agissait de la 2e conférence du cycle, après une première en avril dernier sur le thème des vols habités. Le panel était composé de trois invités aux parcours captivants, qui ont apporté un regard scientifique, personnel et parfois émerveillé sur ces rochers de l’espace : Pâmini Annat, Ian Carnelli et Patrick Michel.
- Pâmini Annat est ingénieure système au CNES, où elle relève avec son équipe les défis liés à la préparation des opérations de dynamique du vol et de programmation des instruments des CubeSats de la mission Hera ; pour la première fois dans l’histoire de l'ESA, deux CubeSats seront déployés dans l’espace profond et s’écarteront jusqu’à 30 km de leur vaisseau mère.
- Ian Carnelli travaille depuis près de 20 ans au cœur du programme de Sécurité spatiale de l’ESA. Il est chef de projet de la mission de défense planétaire Hera, qui vise à transformer une expérience à grande échelle en une technique de déviation d’astéroïde maitrisée et reproductible.
- Directeur de recherches au CNRS, Patrick Michel est un astrophysicien spécialiste des astéroïdes à la renommée internationale ; il a participé aux côtés des équipes de la NASA, de la JAXA, du CNES et bien sûr de l’ESA aux plus incroyables missions à destination d’astéroïdes. Patrick est responsable scientifique de la mission Hera, dont il est aussi l’instigateur.
Après une séance de questions aux experts, le public était invité à découvrir plus en profondeur la mission de défense planétaire Hera et ses CubeSats à travers une exposition photo et une expérience en réalité virtuelle. Patrick Michel dédicaçait également son livre « À la rencontre des astéroïdes », sorti en novembre 2023 aux éditions Odile Jacob.
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Hera asteroid mission - launch highlights
ESA’s Hera mission lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on 7 October at 10:52 local time (16:52 CEST, 14:52 UTC).
Hera is ESA’s first planetary defence mission. It will fly to a unique target among the 1.3 million asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering unknowns associated with its deflection.
Hera will carry out the first detailed survey of a ‘binary’ – or double-body – asteroid, 65803 Didymos, which is orbited by a smaller body, Dimorphos. Hera’s main focus will be Dimorphos, whose orbit around the main body was previously altered by NASA’s kinetic-impacting DART spacecraft.
By sharpening scientific understanding of this ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, Hera should turn the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable technique for protecting Earth from an asteroid on a collision course.
Hera asteroid mission liftoff
ESA’s Hera mission lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on 7 October at 10:52 local time (16:52 CEST, 14:52 UTC).
Hera is ESA’s first planetary defence mission. It will fly to a unique target among the 1.3 million asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering unknowns associated with its deflection.
Hera will carry out the first detailed survey of a ‘binary’ – or double-body – asteroid, 65803 Didymos, which is orbited by a smaller body, Dimorphos. Hera’s main focus will be Dimorphos, whose orbit around the main body was previously altered by NASA’s kinetic-impacting DART spacecraft.
By sharpening scientific understanding of this ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, Hera should turn the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable technique for protecting Earth from an asteroid on a collision course.
Hera asteroid mission launches to the sky on 7 October 2024
ESA’s Hera mission lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, on 7 October at 10:52 local time (16:52 CEST, 14:52 UTC).
Hera is ESA’s first planetary defence mission. It will fly to a unique target among the 1.3 million asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering unknowns associated with its deflection.
Hera will carry out the first detailed survey of a ‘binary’ – or double-body – asteroid, 65803 Didymos, which is orbited by a smaller body, Dimorphos. Hera’s main focus will be Dimorphos, whose orbit around the main body was previously altered by NASA’s kinetic-impacting DART spacecraft.
By sharpening scientific understanding of this ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, Hera should turn the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable technique for protecting Earth from an asteroid on a collision course.
SpaceForest rocket engine SF-1000 tests
A compilation of SpaceForest SF-1000 rocket engine tests recorded over several months in Poland.
Based in Poland, SpaceForest is developing a new commercial single-stage European sounding rocket offering almost four minutes of microgravity experimentation time and uses the SF-1000 engine.
The SF-1000 runs on nitrous oxide and modified paraffin, commonly used as candle wax, and so its propellant is non-toxic. It ran during one of these tests with a total impulse of 1200 kN and a specific impulse – and indication of engine efficiency – of 212 seconds. At one point the video greys out, this is due to the camera recording the engine overheating.
The last test in this video shows the engine using a thrust vector control actuator that provides directional control on ascent.
The Perun launch service offers commercial and institutional customers access to microgravity to run experiments. The 11.5-m tall rocket will be able to launch 50 kg up to 150 km in altitude while also stabilising the payload for high-quality microgravity periods of flight. The service is geared to provide easy access to payloads right up to an hour before launch, which is useful for last-minute tweaks, preparing biological samples or charging batteries for example.
To support the further service development and deployment of Perun, ESA is offering co-funding of through its ‘Boost!’ programme, boosting commercial initiatives that offer transportation services to space, in space, and returning from space. The programme also supports Member States implementing national objectives for spaceports, testing facilities and more.
More information about Perun rocket system can be found at: perunrocket.com.
Space Team Europe for Hera: Ingo Gerth
In this video, Ingo Gerth, Hera Systems Engineering Manager at OHB, explains that the role of OHB as Hera’s prime contractor is being responsible for the entire satellite, and therefore coordinating the work of twenty companies. Ingo enlightens us with inside knowledge of the steps required to reach launch day. He can’t wait to see if the satellite performs in space exactly as they planned on the ground!
Hera is ESA's first planetary defence mission, heading to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System. On 26 September 2022 NASA’s DART mission performed humankind’s first test of asteroid deflection by crashing into the Great-Pyramid-sized Dimorphos moonlet. The result was a shift in its orbit around the mountain-sized Didymos main asteroid.
Now comes ESA’s own contribution to this international collaboration: the Hera mission will revisit Dimorphos to gather vital close-up data about the deflected body.
Why are we going back to this asteroid?
Hera, ESA’s first planetary defence mission, is headed to space.
Hera will fly to a unique target among the 1.3 million known asteroids of our Solar System – the first body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to probe lingering unknowns related to its deflection.
Hera is scheduled for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, today, Monday 7 October, at 16:52 CEST / 15:52 BST.
Mission control GO for Hera launch
Mission control GO for Hera launchHera being enclosed within its launcher fairing
Hera being enclosed within its launcher fairingEarth from Space: Kunshan, China
The exotic stellar population of Westerlund 1
The exotic stellar population of Westerlund 1Playing against type
Playing against type