Meet Ian Carnelli, project manager for Hera, our planetary defense mission that will very soon be launched into space.
Hera will be, along with NASA’s DART spacecraft, humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, a little understood class making up around 15% of all known asteroids.
The night of 26 September 2022 will make space history – as the moment when @NASA’s DART spacecraft impacts the Dimorphos asteroid in an attempt to divert its course – humankind’s first planetary defence test. Next, in 2024, ESA launches its Hera spacecraft to investigate the post-impact asteroid. In fact, Hera is not one spacecraft but three: it carries with it ESA’s first deep-space CubeSats to make extra observations of its target.
With the Hera mission, ESA is assuming even greater responsibility for protecting our planet and ensuring that Europe plays a leading role in the common effort to tackle asteroid risks.
In this video, Ian Carnelli, Hera mission manager, and members of the Hera team, reflect on the DART impact and introduce Hera and its Milani and Juventas CubeSats.
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