On October 7, 2024, at 17:52 (Romanian time), SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the HERA mission from the European Space Agency (ESA).
The launch brings together several technologies designed in Romania, a press release sent to DESCOPERĂ.ro shows, such as “part of the brain of the mission” that was developed to analyze the data collected with HERA, but also a satellite called Juventas.
HERA, ESA’s first planetary defense mission, was developed under the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) program to test various methods by which an asteroid could be deflected from its orbit, but also to study and better understand cosmic objects potentially dangerous to Earth.
An innovative image processing unit
The collaboration began in 2022 with NASA’s DART mission, in which a spacecraft successfully hit the asteroid Dimorphos. Now it’s the turn of the HERA mission to visit the asteroid Dimorphos and its larger pair Didymos. Essentially, scientists want to find out how the asteroid’s trajectory deviated.
In this mission, the team from GMV Romania made a significant contribution by developing the “brain” of the spacecraft and “provided an innovative image processing unit for the mission’s autonomous guidance system”, the aforementioned release also states.
“Practically, HERA’s eyes collect information about where the satellite is in space, and the technology developed by us in Romania interprets this data and allows the mission to stay on the correct path to its final destination,” said Cristian Chițu, Space Director, GMV Romania.
However, it will be another two years before HERA reaches its destination.
The technology developed for HERA will also be useful for other missions
“Space is one of the fields where our country has developed internal capabilities to contribute to space missions, side by side with other European countries,” continued Chițu. “The research and development efforts in Romania are currently as well seen as those in other European states. This helps us to continue to develop a specialized workforce in Romania, to attract financing and to develop innovative technologies that can be transferred to other fields”, the GMV Romania director also pointed out.
Although HERA is a mission carried out in space, its effects will also be felt at home, in Romania. The technology developed in this collaboration could also be useful in other future space missions, such as to the Moon, Mars or the orbit of the planet.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
