Category: Operations

On March 12, 2025, Hera performed a Mars swing-by that utilized the planet’s gravity to insert the spacecraft onto a trajectory towards the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system. Hera made its closest approach to Mars at 21:50 JST on March 12. ESA has confirmed that the spacecraft condition is normal and that the Hera spacecraft has been successfully inserted onto the intended trajectory. During the closest approach to Mars, the Hera spacecraft conducted observations of Mars and the Martian moon, Deimos, followed by the second Martian moon, Phobos, using three onboard cameras: the TIRI provided by JAXA, the visible light camera (Asteroid Framing Camera: AFC), and the visible and near-infrared spectroscopic camera (HyperScout-H). Here, we take a look at the images […]

ESA’s asteroid explorer Hera has taken its first images using three of its instruments which will be used to observe and study the binary asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos. Following the successful launch on October 7, 2024, Hera’s onboard instruments were switched on, and initial checks were conducted. From October 10 to 11, the Hera asteroid deck (+Z face) which houses the spacecraft’s instruments was pointed towards Earth, and the instruments successfully captured their first images of Earth and the Moon from distance of 1.4 to1.6 million kilometers. Figure 1: Hera’s asteroid deck. B is the thermal infrared camera TIRI. (©ESA) Thermal Infrared Imager TIRI Hera’s thermal infrared Imager TIRI captured images of Earth and the Moon from approximately 1.4 million […]