Two TM/TC Front-End Systems for HERA Project

OHB System AG (Bremen) have placed an order with C-STS for the supply of 2 x TM/TC Front-Ends for use in the frame of the HERA asteroid rendezvous mission.

OHB is the Prime Contractor for the HERA spacecraft and these systems will be provided by OHB to two of their subcontractors: - QinetiQ (Belgium) to support the On-Board Computer (OBC) development activities. - GMV (Spain) to be integrated into the overall Attitude Orbit Control Sub-system (AOCS) test environment.

Hera is the European contribution to an international AIDA (Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment) cooperation, the first planetary defense mission. NASA will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two bodies, then Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey that will turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique. While doing so, Hera will also demonstrate multiple novel technologies, such as autonomous navigation around the asteroid – like modern driverless cars on Earth, and gather crucial scientific data, to help scientists and future mission planners better understand asteroid compositions and structures.