On February 4, the “HERA Mission Industry Day”, event took place in Noordwijk, Netherlands, which gave an opportunity for European companies to discuss interests and potential contribution to the HERA mission. HERA is ESA’s contribution to the international cooperation “Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment” (AIDA) with NASA, planned to be launched in 2023 to travel to Asteroid 65803 Didymos, a binary pair made up of one large body and a smaller object, which orbits around it. Main HERA objectives are deflection validation and exploration. Didymos is the tiniest asteroid ever targeted for exploration. It had been selected by NASA because of its close proximity to Earth and its dangerous size, quite small to be detected, but still large enough to cause significant damage. The craft will drive the measurement of the asteroid masses, define the surface properties, study impact effects and will help understand the formation and evolution of this kind of asteroids.
The HERA mission requires several communication, remote sensing and vision-based technologies in its engineering and scientific context. The JOANNEUM RESEARCH Institute DIGITAL has been delivering excellence know-how in satellite communications, wave propagation and aerospace experiments, space exploration, space robotics, earth observation and space missions as well as studies and small series for ESA, NASA and other partners.
DI Gerhard Paar, key researcher at the institute DIGITAL, reported on existing solutions and possible use patterns for HERA including mission-related heritage and presented a wide range of solutions in the following domains:
- 3D mapping & sensor Fusion
- Change detection pre/post impact, as well as dynamically during impact
- Inter-Satellite communication in Q/V Band for synchronized commanding & data capture, and optimized data exchange
- Vision sensor geometric calibration
- Localization & vision-based navigation
- Visualization and geologic mapping (in cooperation with VRVis / Vienna)
The proposed know-how and the portfolio of achievements and accomplishments were recognized as viable candidates for potential partnership and cooperation and received very positive feedback from the audience.
Links
HERA Mission Industry day @ ESA
Presentation “3D Vision & SatCom for HERA”
Presentation Slides “3D Vision & SatCom for HERA”