Results from the Deimos close encounter should help guide operational planning for next year’s Martian Moons eXploration Mission, MMX, being led by JAXA in collaboration with NASA, the French space agency CNES, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and ESA. MMX will not only collect detailed measurements of both martian moons but also land on Phobos to collect a sample and return it to Earth for analysis.

With Didymos being 780 m across and Dimorphos just 151 m across, Hera’s twin destinations are many times smaller than the city-sized Deimos moon, but Hera is now headed on course towards them. A follow-up manoeuvre next February, followed by a series of ‘impulsive rendezvous’ thruster firings starting in October 2026 will fine-tune its heading to reach the Didymos system that December.