Recent Publications | GRASS gravimeter
Successful test campaign for the GRASS instrument
The GRASS (GRAvimeter for Small Solar system bodies) instrument developed within the ESA Hera mission has recently undergone a successful environmental test campaign.
The tests, which were performed in ESA’s Mechanical Systems Laboratory, showed that GRASS is capable to withstand the harsh thermal and air-free environment of space as well as the intense vibrations of the launch.
​
GRASS is a piece of technology, L-shaped and about the size of two hard drives, developed by the Royal Observatory of Belgium with Spain’s EMXYS company. It will be the first instrument to directly measure gravity on the surface of an asteroid. The gravimeter will be landed on the surface of the Dimorphos asteroid (about the same size as the Colosseum of Rome) aboard the Juventas CubeSat – which will itself be deployed from the Hera mission for planetary defence about the binary asteroid Didymos – and will measure gravity levels of less than a millionth of Earth’s own.
​
See ESA press release for more information:
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Instrument_to_measure_asteroid_gravity_tested_for_space.
European Planetary Science Congress 2022 in Granada
Measuring gravity with the GRASS instrument on the Hera mission
​
Birgit Ritter, Özgur Karatekin, José A Carrasco, Elisa Tasev, Higinio Alavés Mañogil, Matthias Noeker, Emiel Van Ransbeek, Guillaume Noiset, Cem Berk Senel
​
With the gravimeter for small solar system objects (GRASS), absolute surface accelerations in the order of nano-g can be measured. It is an innovative and extremely compact sensor that will fly as part of ESA's Hera mission onboard the Juventas CubeSat to the binary asteroid system Didymos. In 2027, Juventas will land on the secondary body of the system, Dimorphos, and GRASS will hence measure the local gravity vector and its temporal variations at the landing site. Apart from the direct mass determination, these measurements will help in synergy with other instruments to constrain the geological substructure as well as the surface geophysical environment.The instrument is currently under development at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, funded by the Belgian PRODEX office and in cooperation with EMXYS in Spain ...
See more information:
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2022/EPSC2022-1115.html
​
How to cite: