Beyond Gravity, a supplier to the space industry, provided key products for Europe’s first-ever planetary defense mission, Hera. The company provided the solar wings of the spacecraft, its central tube (backbone) and electronic products. The European Space Agency’s Hera planetary defense mission is expected to launch between 7 and 27 October 2024 from Cape Canaveral in the USA aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. 

The spacecraft will fly to an asteroid that was hit two years ago by NASA’s DART spacecraft, the world’s first deflection of an asteroid. The Hera spacecraft will investigate in detail the effect of the DART impact on the asteroid with the help of various cameras and scientific instruments. “Changing an asteroid’s trajectory is an important planetary defense technique for humanity if a large asteroid is ever found to be on a collision course with Earth. We provided important components to this mission. Our solar wings make sure that Hera always receives enough electrical power for its operations, and our central tube acts as the backbone of the spacecraft”, says Oliver Grassmann, Executive Vice President Satellites, at Beyond Gravity, a European supplier for both established companies and New Space. The prime contractor of Hera is the German satellite manufacturer OHB in Bremen.

For the van-sized Hera spacecraft, Beyond Gravity provided two 5-meter-long solar wings. Each solar wing consists of three hinged panels. This gives a total area of about 14 square meters. Oliver Grassmann: “It’s the first time Beyond Gravity developed the complete solar arrays for a European space mission.” Beyond Gravity also delivered the mechanisms that point the solar arrays toward the Sun. The spacecraft and its solar arrays will operate at temperatures between -100°C and +140°C. The solar panels will continue working even with Hera at its furthest distance from the Sun, out beyond Mars orbit, where the spacecraft will receive only 17% of the sunlight compared to a satellite orbiting Earth. In the phases of the mission in which Hera will be most distant, the solar panels will generate around 800 watts, equal to the energy needed to power a small microwave oven. The solar arrays will generate enough energy to power the spacecraft’s onboard computer, navigational cameras and communications antenna.

Beyond Gravity also provided the central structure for the Hera satellite. Made of carbon fibre reinforced polymer, this is the central core on which all other components are mounted. The stiff, strong central tube is the main structural element of the spacecraft, keeping everything together. The function of the central tube can be compared with a chassis of a car. The central cylinder is the central part of the spacecraft, interfacing with the launcher during launch and holding together the spacecraft components such as the propellant tanks, thrusters, and decks hosting all of the spacecraft equipment.

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