The Asteroid Framing Camera, AFC
The Asteroid Framing Camera, AFC
The Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC) will play a central role in ESA's Hera mission. It will take non-detailed images of the surface of the Didymos and Dimorphos binary asteroid system for scientific analyses and examine the crater left by the impact of the DART space probe. It is also essential for guidance, navigation and control of the spacecraft. The AFC will home in on Dimorphos when it is still a single point of light in the sky. The AFC will then transition to close-up navigation, using edge detection to keep the asteroid centered in its field of view while tracking surface features to derive Hera’s exact position from the asteroid similarly to self-driving car software. The 1.3-kilogram AFC is roughly the size and shape of a household vase and was designed, manufactured and tested by Jena-Optronik.
