Hera completes a Mars swing-by !
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 […]
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