On March 12, 2025, Spatula – ESA’s first space safety mission – reached Deimos, coming within 5,000 km of the surface of Mars and 1,000 km from Deimos. During flybys, the spacecraft deployed scientific payloads for studying Earth and the Moon. Activating the instruments onboard Hera, scientists were able to visualize the surface of Mars and the features of Deimos.
Mars appears bright blue in this near-infrared image of the Hyperscout H Hyperspectral Imager, which was acquired on the Mission’s March 12th Gravity Assisted Flyby. The spacecraft was about 1,000 km from Deimos, 12.4 km in diameter when this image was acquired. In the background, you can observe various Mars features. At the top of the image is the bright Terra Sabaaa area near the equator of Mars, which is outlined in a dark area, with the huygen crater at a distance of 450 km to the left of the Terra Aaa at Sabaaa and the 460 km diameter Shea Parelli Crater. To the bottom right of the Mars disc is one of the largest known impact craters in the solar system, 2,300 km in diameter and over 7 km deep. Image credit: ESA.
Launched on October 7th, 2024, Hera is now en route to visit Dimorphos. Dimorphos was the first asteroid to have its orbit altered by human intervention.
By gathering detailed data on this asteroid, which was affected by NASA’s DART spacecraft in 2022, Hera aims to advance asteroid deflection into a well-understood and potentially replicable technology.
Hera’s Flyby of Mars was a crucial step in the journey through Deep Space, meticulously planned by ESA’s Flight Dynamics team.
Approaching within 5,000 km of Mars, the planet’s gravity assisted in adjusting the spacecraft’s path towards its target.
Traveling at 9 km/s relative to Mars, Hera was able to capture images of Deimos from 1,000 km away, exploring the far side of the tiny moon opposite to the red planet.
“The mission analysis and flight dynamics team at ESOC in Germany did an exceptional job in planning the gravity assist,” said Caglayan Guerbuez, ESA’s Hera Spacecraft Operations Manager.
“In particular, they had to fine-tune the operations to bring Hera closer to Deimos, which added quite a bit of extra work for them!”
Three instruments onboard HERA were utilized during the flyby.
– The asteroid framing camera of the Spara, used for navigation and scientific purposes, captured images in visible light.
– HERA’s Hyperscout H Hyperspectral Imager observed in multiple colors beyond human perception, aiding in characterizing mineral compositions with its 25 visible and near-infrared spectral bands.
– HERA’s thermal infrared imager, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), revealed physical properties such as roughness, particle size distribution, and porosity, mapping surface temperatures in mid-red wavelengths.
“These instruments were previously tested before leaving Earth, but this is the first time they were utilized on a distant moon like Deimos where knowledge is limited,” said the Research Director of CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur.
“Upon reaching Deimos, one of the HERA instruments remained idle as the others were in use. This is due to the limitation of the Cubesats, which are only activated at slower speeds when at a considerable distance from the target,” added the Research Director.
Source: www.sci.news
