ESA Seeks Designation for Hera Mission Dinosaur Mascot

# Planetary Defense Mascot Identification Initiated

As the Hera spacecraft prepares for its rendezvous with the Didymos binary asteroid system, the European Space Agency (ESA) has opened a public call to name the mission's official mascot. According to ESA, the mascot—a small dinosaur—serves as a symbolic link between Earth’s prehistoric extinction events and modern efforts to mitigate future impact threats.

Mission Context

Hera is Europe’s contribution to an international planetary defense experiment. Following NASA’s DART mission, which successfully impacted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in 2022 to alter its orbit, Hera will perform a high-resolution post-impact survey. The objective is to gather precise data on the asteroid’s mass, composition, and the crater left by DART, turning kinetic impact into a repeatable planetary defense technique.

Selection Process

The dinosaur mascot is a reference to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, an event widely attributed to a massive asteroid impact 66 million years ago. By bringing a dinosaur along for the mission, ESA highlights the technological shift from passive victimhood to active planetary protection.

Members of the public are invited to submit name suggestions through official ESA channels. The agency emphasizes that the chosen name should reflect the mission's themes of resilience, scientific inquiry, or cosmic safety. Submissions will be reviewed by the Hera project team before a final designation is announced. This outreach initiative aims to bridge the gap between complex orbital mechanics and public engagement in European space security.