To space again!

Created on Friday, 18 March 2022 23:15

We are currently finishing an order from company OHB Czechspace for the production of mechanical components for the HERA spacecraft. This is the third occasion when our products will "take a look" into space.

The HERA mission is part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) planetary defence programme, a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This project is designed to demonstrate the practical consequences of an artificial body impacting an asteroid and to investigate possible methods of deflecting a similar asteroid from a collision course with Earth.

The AIDA project has already kicked off in November last year, when SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carried the american DART spacecraft into space. The probe is now on an 11-million-kilometre journey to the double asteroid Didymos. Its suicidal journey will be capped in October this year with an impact with the smaller of the asteroids, at a speed of 6.6 km/s.

In 2024, the HERA spacecraft will launch, probably using a European Ariane 6 rocket, and is scheduled to reach the asteroid in January 2027. HERA will use scientific instruments on board to study not only the crater created by the collision with the DART probe, but also the composition and mass of the asteroid itself. The spacecraft will also carry two suitcase-sized CubeSats, MILANI and JUVENTAS, which will explore the asteroid from closer range and eventually land on it.

Our customer, OHB Czechspace, based in Brno, is part of the European space and technology group OHB. The company's core activities include mechanical design and structural analysis, which are integral to all satellite systems. Projects include scientific missions, Earth observation, telecommunications, studies for ESA and many others.