Past asteroid impacts, such as the Chelyabinsk event in 2013, highlight the potential dangers, as a small asteroid caused significant injuries and damage.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is gearing up for the Hera mission, which is set to launch on October 7, 2024, to study the double asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos.

Hera represents the world's first test of asteroid deflection, following NASA's successful DART mission that impacted Dimorphos in 2022.

This mission will mark a significant milestone as Hera will be the first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system.

Hera aims to conduct a detailed post-impact survey to establish a repeatable planetary defense technique against potential asteroid threats.

By gathering close-up data on Dimorphos, Hera will refine techniques for asteroid deflection, building on the findings from the DART mission.

Equipped with twelve instruments, including two cameras from Jena-Optronik, Hera will create a digital terrain model of the asteroids and analyze changes from the DART impact.

The spacecraft will also deploy two CubeSats, Juventas and Milani, to land on Dimorphos for surface and internal structure analysis.

As ESA's first planetary defense mission, Hera targets a unique asteroid among the 1.3 million known in our Solar System.

Experts stress the importance of data from the Hera mission to prevent future dangerous asteroid encounters, as large impacts could have catastrophic consequences.

Hera will also demonstrate new technologies, including the deployment of ESA's first deep space CubeSats and vision-based navigation for autonomous operations.

The mission is scheduled for launch in October 2024, with a rendezvous planned for December 2026, as part of an international collaboration involving ESA, NASA, and JAXA.