This is a press release subject to the customer. Submit your press release.
Dutch society around the world, Cosine, has a great impact in space exploration. The company plays a key role in the HERA mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) by providing a powerful hyperspectral camera: the Hyperscout H. This instrument the size of a shoe box has just captured a remarkable image of the planet Mars and its enigmatic Moon Deimos, marking an important step in the mission.
Contribution to an international spatial mission for land security
Launched on October 7, 2024, Hera is part of a revolutionary planetary defense initiative. He followed the Dart mission of NASA in 2022, which managed to modify the orbit of asteroid dimorphos for the first time in the history of humanity. Hera will now assess the impact and further refine our understanding of the deviation of asteroids – an essential strategy to protect the earth from potential future threats.
The trip to the binary asteroid system Didymos-Dimorphos takes two years, and along the way, Hera seizes unique scientific opportunities. On March 12, 2025, the spaceship made a maneuver of gravity assistants around Mars, less than 5,000 km from the surface of the planet and just 300 km from its Deimos Moon the size of a city. This overview was an excellent opportunity to make an orbit calibration for the instruments on board, because Mars provided a large well characterized target, allowing the fine adjustment of all the pixels of the sensors. And then there was an additional scientific bonus: Deimos, the Mars of Mars, which so far had only been captured from the point of view of the surface of Mars.
Hyperscout H, developed by remote sensing in Cosinus BV, captured a lively spectral image from Mars in the background with Deimos in the foreground – the very first image on the distant side of Deimos in this spectral range. These images could give us new information on how the Deimos have formed – that it resulted from a collision with Mars or if it is in fact a captured foreign moon.
From Mars to Asteroids for Planetary Defense
While the March of March was a scientific success, the real mission awaits us. In December 2026, Hera will reach its main target, Dimorphos. Hyperscout H will play a crucial role in the analysis of the composition of the asteroid soil from a distance, helping scientists understand the long -term effects of the impact of Dart de la NASA and to transform it into a reproducible planetary defense technique. Before getting there, this captured imaging of the Red planet already underlines the impact of this Dutch innovation on the world scene of the Cosinus. It is really exhilarating to see our technology occurring transparently in a deep space. After years of dedicated effort, see this compact but powerful instrument prosper on an interplanetary director general.
Asteroid and lunar mining economy
“Our technology has proven itself in the facilitation of complex planetary exploration missions. Applications, ”added Dr Esposito.
For the future, the company has exciting prospects on the horizon, with the hunt for asteroids for planetary defense, and the exploitation of asteroids and the moon thanks to spectral imagery standing up as flagship applications for cosine technologies.
About the Cosinus
The Cosinus is a Dutch company that develops and builds optical and in situ measurement systems for the use of space, air and soil. It is based in Sassenheim, the Netherlands, with subsidiaries in Italy and Germany. The company’s range of scout instruments is used for the observation of the land, planetary exploration and now, deep space missions like Hera.