What’s next for Hera?

Hera is now already more than a million kilometres from Earth. Over the next few weeks, the spacecraft’s suite of scientific instruments will be gradually powered on and tested. These instruments will collect valuable data about Didymos and its moonlet, Dimorphos, once Hera arrives at the binary asteroid system in late 2026. In particular, Hera will help scientists better understand the structure of Dimorphos and how it was altered by NASA’s DART mission, which deliberately crashed into the asteroid in 2022 in the first test of asteroid deflection.

Hera will also study how binary asteroid systems like Didymos form and function. As the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, Hera will provide unique insight into these celestial bodies, which account for around 15% of all known asteroids.

Hera’s first deep space manoeuvre will begin in late October and put the spacecraft on course for its next major milestone, a flyby of Mars in March 2025. During this flyby, Hera will use its instruments to study Deimos, the smaller and more enigmatic of Mars’s two moons. This will serve as an important test for many of the spacecraft’s instruments, ensuring they are fully operational before the spacecraft arrives at its final destination, Didymos.