Queen's Brian May spoke about the ESA's Hera mission, which aims to deflect a dangerous astroid from our planet. (Photo Credit: European Space Agency / YouTube)
Astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May recently explained the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission in a video and it is an aspiring plan to save Earth from a potentially dangerous asteroid system.
The ESA video, which was shared on Wednesday, details the ESA Hera mission, which according to the agency, will be “humanity’s first-ever spacecraft to visit a double asteroid.” Dubbed Didymos, the asteroid system is one of thousands that could be an impact risk to Earth, and even the smaller of the two asteroids would be large enough to damage an entire city if it collided with our planet. The aim of Hera is to help ESA explore the possibility of deflecting this type of asteroid and formulate ways to protect Earth from harmful space rocks.
“Imagine a mountain in the sky, with another rock about the size of the Great Pyramid swinging around it,” May said in the ESA video. “That’s Didymos. Just the seemingly tiny move would be big enough to destroy a city if it were to collide with the Earth.”
Here’s the proposed plan: First, NASA will slam its DART spacecraft into the smaller asteroid (Didymoon) before ESA’s Hera spacecraft will come in to map the crash’s impact crater and determine the asteroid’s mass. For the mission, Hera will have two CubeSats on board, which can fly in closer proximity to the asteroid’s surface before touching down there. With Hera’s close observations, scientists can better understand potential asteroid deflection strategies and ramp up planetary defense initiatives.
In November, the Hera mission will be presented to ESA’s Space19+ meeting, where Europe’s space ministers will come up with a final decision on the mission. Together, ESA and other international space agencies will collaborate on ways to protect people and the planet from troubling asteroid activity.