Tight deadline for launch

To meet its spring 2028 deadline for launch on a Japanese H3 rocket, the development, integration and testing of Ramses must be completed within less than two years. To help achieve this, Ramses reuses design elements of ESA’s Hera asteroid mission, on track to reach the Dimorphos asteroid this November.

Ramses, like Hera, will also carry a pair of CubeSats – miniature spacecraft built up from 10 cm boxes – for closer observations of its target. Farinella, from Italy’s Tyvak International company, will combine a ground-penetrating radar with a dust analyser.