Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
Hera is a spacecraft from Europe. It is flying to two asteroids called Didymos and Dimorphos. NASA hit one of them with a spacecraft in 2022.
Hera will arrive in November 2026. That is one month earlier than the first plan. Hera is now slowing down so it can stop near the asteroids.
Hera will look at the place where the crash happened. Scientists want to learn how to protect Earth from a dangerous asteroid in the future.
- spacecraft
- a vehicle that travels in space
- asteroid
- a small rocky object that goes around the Sun
- arrive
- to reach a place
- brake
- to slow down or stop
- crash
- a hard hit
- scientist
- a person who studies nature
- protect
- to keep safe
- dangerous
- able to cause harm
Level 2 - Elementary
The European Space Agency says its Hera spacecraft is now expected to reach the Didymos asteroid system in November 2026, about a month earlier than the first plan. The change comes after engineers wrote a new schedule for slowing the spacecraft down.
In 2022 NASA's DART spacecraft hit Dimorphos, the small moon that circles the larger asteroid Didymos, to test whether a crash can change an asteroid's path. Hera launched in 2024 to check the damage and measure the two rocks closely.
ESA says the engines have worked so well that they can brake later and harder on the way in. Because Hera will be too far from Earth for commands in real time, it will use a self driving navigation system.
- expected
- thought likely to happen
- engineer
- a person who designs and builds machines
- schedule
- a plan of times for things to happen
- moon
- a smaller body that circles a planet or asteroid
- path
- the route something follows
- measure
- to find the size or amount of something
- command
- an order sent to a machine
- navigation
- finding and following a route
Level 3 - Intermediate
The European Space Agency's Hera mission is on course to reach the Didymos asteroid system in November 2026, roughly a month ahead of the original timetable. ESA credits the spacecraft's reliable propulsion, which allowed mission planners to design a more aggressive approach in which Hera brakes later and harder.
Hera was launched in October 2024 to follow up on NASA's DART experiment, which in 2022 deliberately slammed into Dimorphos, the small moon orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. The goal is to measure the crater, the moon's mass and its orbit, so that the first real test of planetary defence can be turned into reliable science.
Because Hera will be too distant for controllers to steer in real time, it relies on autonomous navigation, a self driving system that is one of the mission's key innovations. ESA published an update on October 7 titled 'Brake! Time for ESA's Hera asteroid mission to go slow'.
- on course
- moving in the right direction to reach a goal
- timetable
- a schedule
- propulsion
- the system that pushes a spacecraft forward
- aggressive
- using strong and bold methods
- crater
- a bowl shaped hole made by an impact
- mass
- the amount of matter in an object
- planetary defence
- efforts to protect Earth from space objects
- autonomous
- able to operate without outside control
Level 4 - Advanced
Europe's Hera spacecraft is set to arrive at the Didymos asteroid system in November 2026, a month earlier than first planned, after ESA engineers drew up a revised approach in which the probe brakes later and harder than originally intended. The agency attributes the change to the unexpectedly dependable performance of Hera's propulsion system.
The mission is the European half of an international planetary defence effort. In September 2022 NASA's DART spacecraft struck Dimorphos, the small moon of Didymos, to test whether a deliberate collision could alter an asteroid's trajectory. Hera, launched in October 2024, will survey the aftermath, pinning down the size of the crater, the moon's mass and how its orbit changed, details that remote observation could not settle.
Hera will be too far away for ground controllers to steer it moment to moment, so its autonomous navigation system, often described as self driving, has to cope alone during the delicate final approach. An ESA update on October 7, titled 'Brake! Time for ESA's Hera asteroid mission to go slow', marks the start of that deceleration.
- revised
- changed to improve something
- attributes
- says something is caused by
- dependable
- reliable
- trajectory
- the path of a moving object
- aftermath
- the situation after a big event
- pinning down
- determining precisely
- delicate
- needing great care
- deceleration
- the process of slowing down
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