{"id":180469,"date":"2019-12-02T21:45:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T13:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geek.com\/featured\/-1812315\/"},"modified":"2019-12-02T21:45:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T13:45:24","slug":"esas-hera-asteroid-deflection-mission-gets-green-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/2019\/12\/02\/esas-hera-asteroid-deflection-mission-gets-green-light\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA\u2019s Hera Asteroid Deflection Mission Gets Green Light"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Europe’s space ministers approved ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for construction and launch (via European Space Agency\/YouTube)<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The European Space Agency’s asteroid deflection mission is a go<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hera<\/a>\u2014”humanity’s first-ever spacecraft to visit a double asteroid”\u2014has been greenlit for construction and launch as part of the organization’s broader planetary defense initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Named for the Greek goddess of marriage,\u00a0Hera will steer itself through space<\/a>, autonomously navigating as close as 218 yards from the smaller of the two planetoids: 350-foot-wide Didymos B\u2014affectionately known as the “Didymoon.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Small asteroids hit Earth almost daily, but most break and burn in the upper atmosphere, leaving no discernable traces on our world. Objects larger than 0.6 miles\u2014like the Chelyabinsk meteor, caused by an approximately 22-yard near-Earth asteroid\u2014can have devastating effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

In hopes of avoiding disaster, NASA recently began developing a spacecraft to pummel asteroids and knock them off a course for our planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test<\/a>, or DART, is set to be the first space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor (i.e. strike the satellite to shift its orbit).<\/span><\/p>\n