Hey, remember that asteroid we punched? And by “that asteroid” I mean Dimorphos, the cute little moonlet to Didymos, and by “we” I mean NASA’s 2022 DART mission. You know, the one where humanity sent a spacecraft to slam into an unsuspecting asteroid just minding its own business out there in the cosmos?
Right, that one. It turns out the story isn’t quite over!
“This thing that we thought was going to be very cut and dry turned out to be really interesting and complicated,” Thomas said. … That’s where Hera comes in, with its first arrival maneuver scheduled for Oct. 15.
October 15th? Why, that’s today! The spacecraft just started what will be the first of many orbital braking maneuvers. The earliest expected arrival date at Chez DimDidy is November 4th. (For the complete schedule, full telemetry, arrival simulation, and more, check out ESA’s Hera site online.)
And this is just the beginning of a months-long mission to better understand the asteroid’s composition and map the impact event. They even have two little probe-lets piggybacking on the bigger Hera probe. Once there, all three craft will Do Science.
How exciting! And hopefully the asteroid won’t hold a grudge.
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