ISRO’s first solar mission, Aditya L1, is scheduled for launch on Friday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The spacecraft is expected to launch at 11:50 a.m. following the remarkable achievement of Chandrayaan-3’s recent landing at the moon’s south pole last week.
ISRO’s goal with the Aditya L1 mission is to place the spacecraft in a “halo orbit” around Lagrange point 1 (L1) in the Sun-Earth system, about 1.5 million km away from Earth .
“During the mission, ISRO will study the impact of solar activities on space weather in real time. The mission’s other key objectives also include understanding “coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, space weather dynamics, particle and field propagation, etc,” the space agency explained. out.
“The journey to the designated mission site is a whopping 1.5 million km from Earth and will take about four months,” ISRO said.
Read also: The Aditya L1 spacecraft rolled out to the second launch pad, scheduled for launch on Sept. 2
Aditya L1’s four-month journey
The ISRO explained on its website that the spacecraft will initially be placed in low Earth orbit.
“Subsequently, the orbit will be made more elliptical and later the spacecraft will be launched to the Lagrange point L1 using onboard propulsion,” the report said. As it travels towards L1, Aditya L1 will leave Earth’s gravitational sphere. If the “cruise phase” emerges from that, the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo orbit around L1. “The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about four months for Aditya-L1,” ISRO said.
Lagrange points
Lagrange points represent specific locations in space where the gravitational pull of two celestial bodies, such as the Sun and Earth, generate regions of gravitational equilibrium. Within these points, a spacecraft can maintain a stable position without the need for continued fuel consumption.
Read also: We’re off: time for India’s place in the sun
In systems such as the Earth-Sun configuration, five Lagrange points exist, designated L1 through L5. Of these, L1 and L2, which are closest to Earth, provide favorable positions for conducting observational research.
What are the objectives of the Aditya L1 mission?
The main objectives of ISRO’s first solar mission include: studying the dynamics of the sun’s upper atmosphere (chromosphere and corona); studying chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionized plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections and bursts; observing the in-situ particle and plasma environment, which provides data for the study of solar particle dynamics; and physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism.
Read also: ISRO announces launch details of Aditya L1, India’s mission to study the sun. Check the date and time here
In addition, the mission also aims to study the diagnostics of the plasma of the coronal and coronal loops: temperature, velocity and density; development, dynamics and origin of CMEs; identify the sequence of processes that take place in multiple layers (chromosphere, basal and extended corona) that ultimately lead to solar outbursts; magnetic field topology and magnetic field measurements in the solar corona; and space weather drivers (solar wind origin, composition and dynamics).
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Updated: August 30, 2023, 9:04 AM IST
