Session
Session VIII: Next on the Pad 2
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
The Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission, a collaborative effort for Planetary Defense, involves the DART and Hera spacecrafts targeting the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system. Their objectives include assessing asteroid deflection, conducting close observations, and demonstrating future mission technologies. DART, launched by NASA, impacted Dimorphos in September 2022. While Hera, an ESA spacecraft, carrying Juventas and Milani 6U-XL CubeSats, will be launch in October 2024 to reach the binary asteroid system after a two-year Cruise. Hera will arrive in December 2026 in order to characterize afterwards the result of the DART impact in terms of reshaping and deflection of Dimorphos. The French Space Agency (CNES) contributes to Hera’s mission through CubeSats preliminary trajectory design and close proximity operations for flight dynamics and payloads programming. From the mothercraft ejection to the realization of the scientific objectives of the different payloads (imager, radar, gravimeter, radio-science experiment) to landing, the proximity operations will be held in 2027 within the C-FDSOC (Cubesats Flight Dynamics and Science Operation Center, France) in support of the CMOC (Cubesat Mission Operation Center, Belgium) with direct interface with the HMOC (Hera Mission Operation Center, Germany) as all uplinks and downlinks transit through the Hera mothership. Taking into account the various constraints for each phase implies specific trajectories design with dedicated maneuver strategies and payloads acquisitions sequences through an adapted Concept of Operations shared with Hera ground segment European stakeholders and Payloads teams. This paper will therefore present the different types of trajectories and the preliminary ConOps and necessary ground segment automation elaborated to fulfill mission programming and flight dynamics objectives for the two Hera CubeSats, Milani and Juventas.
Hera Cubesats Trajectory Design and ConOps for Didymos Binary Asteroid Characterization
Utah State University, Logan, UT
The Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission, a collaborative effort for Planetary Defense, involves the DART and Hera spacecrafts targeting the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system. Their objectives include assessing asteroid deflection, conducting close observations, and demonstrating future mission technologies. DART, launched by NASA, impacted Dimorphos in September 2022. While Hera, an ESA spacecraft, carrying Juventas and Milani 6U-XL CubeSats, will be launch in October 2024 to reach the binary asteroid system after a two-year Cruise. Hera will arrive in December 2026 in order to characterize afterwards the result of the DART impact in terms of reshaping and deflection of Dimorphos. The French Space Agency (CNES) contributes to Hera’s mission through CubeSats preliminary trajectory design and close proximity operations for flight dynamics and payloads programming. From the mothercraft ejection to the realization of the scientific objectives of the different payloads (imager, radar, gravimeter, radio-science experiment) to landing, the proximity operations will be held in 2027 within the C-FDSOC (Cubesats Flight Dynamics and Science Operation Center, France) in support of the CMOC (Cubesat Mission Operation Center, Belgium) with direct interface with the HMOC (Hera Mission Operation Center, Germany) as all uplinks and downlinks transit through the Hera mothership. Taking into account the various constraints for each phase implies specific trajectories design with dedicated maneuver strategies and payloads acquisitions sequences through an adapted Concept of Operations shared with Hera ground segment European stakeholders and Payloads teams. This paper will therefore present the different types of trajectories and the preliminary ConOps and necessary ground segment automation elaborated to fulfill mission programming and flight dynamics objectives for the two Hera CubeSats, Milani and Juventas.
