We will post some good karma tonight -- awaiting some binary news of our own, tomorrow. We hope.
As to the mission, this is all a perfect follow up to our DART mission of a few years back [imaged in the above masthead graphic]. Here's the latest, from ESA.int's Hera blog:
. . .Currently flying relative to Earth at a speed of more than 12 kilometres per second, Hera has been moving like a race car changing lanes, first crossing Mars orbit and now closing in on the orbit of the Didymos binary asteroids. . . .
[I]n order to come close to matching the velocity of its targets, Hera must now perform some serious braking. . . .
Early on Thursday 15 October, Hera rotated around so that its ring of Orbit Control Thrusters faced towards the Didymos system. Three of these hydrazine-based thrusters were ignited at once, burning continuously for a total of 93 minutes, to reduce Hera’s velocity relative to the asteroids by a few hundred metres per second. . . .
“At this point the really hard work starts for us: we will use Hera’s GNC (guidance, navigation and control) sensor outputs via the telemetry we receive plus ranging and Doppler data embedded in the signal itself to assess that the direction and magnitude of the braking matches the anticipated change in ‘delta-v’. . . .”
Following a busy few days of checks and calculations, the telecommand sequence for a second shorter braking manoeuvre, BRM-2, will be uplinked to Hera to be implemented on the early morning of Thursday 22 October. This second approximately 31 minute thruster burn should complete most of the Delta-V required to match the velocity of the Didymos system, at the same time compensating for any misperformance in the BRM-1. . . .
Now you know -- grinning, just the same. Out -- to build more of the haunted house, for the kids.
नमस्ते
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