The Hera spacecraft deploys its CubeSats
The Hera spacecraft deploys its CubeSats
The Hera spacecraft is carrying two small satellites, known as CubeSats. At its destination, the binary asteroids system of Didymos and Dimorphos, it will deploy the two CubeSats – the radar mission Juventas and the mineral prospector Milani – one after the other so that they can carry out complementary investigations. They will come much closer to the two asteroids than the Hera spacecraft would be able to. The three space probes will communicate with each other via satellite links, with Hera relaying the data to Earth. These connections will also make it possible to estimate the mass of the two asteroids: The smallest gravity-induced movements of Hera, Juventas and Milani can be identified using Doppler shifts in the signals.
