DGAP-News: OHB SE: ESA commissions OHB with study on HERA asteroid mission / OHB Group expands its activities in the field of earth protection

Bremen - OHB System AG, a subsidiary of the Bremen-based space and technology group OHB SE, has been selected by the European Space Agency ESA as prime contractor for a study on the asteroid mission HERA. The contract has a volume of EUR 4.5 million and expands the OHB Group's ongoing activities in the area of protecting Earth from space threats.

The aim of the HERA study is to perform detailed mission definition a technical design of a probe that will fly to the twin asteroid "Didymos". The spacecraft will analyze its surface and sub-surface physical properties and investigate its dynamics in the aftermath of a hypervelocity impact. The HERA mission is the European contribution to a joint but staggered planetary defence mission with NASA. HERA is to investigate in particular the impact crater on the smaller of the two asteroids (called "Didymoon"), which NASA's DART spacecraft will have left behind with a previously mission to be launched in 2021.

According to the scientists, the impact will slow Didymoon down by about half a millimetre per second. HERA is to provide detailed information on Didymoon's orbit changes and relate them to the asteroid composition, as well as surface and interior structure. With this experiment a viable method to deflect asteroids from their collision course with Earth will be fully validated and the results of this international collaboration could be extrapolated from Didymos to other asteroids. The launch of the HERA mission is currently planned for end 2023.