European Space Agency prepares launch of first planetary defense mission

The Manila Times

European Space Agency prepares launch of first planetary defense mission  The European Space Agency (ESA) prepares to launch its Hera spacecraft in October on its first planetary defense mission. Hera is part of the international Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which in its first part saw NASA impact the small moon Dimorphos in the double-asteroid Didymos System during its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission. DART was the first time that humanity was able to alter the orbit of a celestial body, Ignacio Tanco, Hera Operation Manager at ESA. Hera will help in understanding the physical properties of asteroids, which is important if you want to repeat the experiment or if you actually need to defend the Earth from asteroids, said Juan Luis Cano, ESA's Planetary Defense Coordinator.  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews #space #europeanspaceagency

Transcript

00:00HEDA is the first planetary defense mission of the European Space Agency.

00:22This is a new program that we have created recently and the aim is to study and promote

00:28means of planetary defense, so to be able to defend the Earth from future threats, including

00:36asteroid strikes.

00:58The important thing is that for the first time ever, humanity was able to alter the

01:21orbit of a celestial body.

01:24Now, we had models for this and what we saw is that the results of the impact were not

01:29what we expected.

01:30In fact, were quite different from what we expected.

01:33The change in the orbit was greater than what we would have imagined should have happened.

01:39We need to understand exactly why, improve our models, therefore we need to go there.

01:45HEDA will complete this task and we will have a better understanding of the dynamics and

01:51the internal structure of this asteroid.

02:51The mission will first go to Mars, so we don't have enough energy out of the rocket to get

03:18directly to the asteroid.

03:20We will use Mars to accelerate us, so we will get to Mars next year and then on 2026

03:25we will finally arrive at the asteroid.

03:28This will require very precise navigation, so the cruise phase is going to be very delicate.

03:34Once we get there, we will need to rendezvous, so do a very precise maneuvering to get ourselves

03:39very close to the asteroid.

03:41This again will be a significant challenge for the mission, but we are quite sure that

03:47we will achieve our ends, so we are getting trained and the teams here are getting prepared for it.

03:54Well, HEDA is a very challenging mission.

04:17It has been developed in a very different way from what other missions at ESA typically

04:23are done, so the development time was extremely compressed and in only four years we will

04:30be able to design, test and launch this mission.

04:34So for us, success means getting there, so demonstrating that this new way of doing missions

04:41for ESA is possible to do things very quickly and yet get there and get the results that

04:48we expect.

04:49So I would consider it a success when I start seeing the pictures of the asteroid up close

04:55by.

05:02Well, in the last decades we have understood that there is a threat in space.

05:19We have learned that there are still lots of material that originated from the creation

05:24of the solar system that is still orbiting in orbits which are close to the Earth.

05:30And we have started to discover them in great numbers.

05:34So we have understood that there is a threat of asteroids falling to the Earth and actually

05:39cause damage to our societies.

05:41So we have to protect ourselves against that and that's why the space agencies, and in

05:46particular the European Space Agency, is preparing in order to face that threat.

05:59Here is going to help us a lot in understanding what are the physical properties of asteroids.

06:05And this is very important for us because whenever we want to repeat this experiment

06:09or actually do it in order to defend the Earth from asteroids, it is very important to understand

06:14what is the reaction of these bodies to collisions or any other type of action that we might

06:19like to put on the asteroid.

06:22So it's very important to understand exactly what happened with the impact of that in Didymos,

06:27in Dimorphos, and understand exactly what are the properties in order to improve our

06:34models of how these deflection methodologies work.

06:44NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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