On 2nd September 2023, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the spacecraft : Aditya – L1. Speaking to India Today, Nigar Shaji, the Project Director for the ongoing mission has given an update in which she declared that the Aditya – L1 has covered over a million kilometers in space and will reach Lagrange Point 1 (L1) in January 2024.
Aditya – L1
The Spacecraft is named after ‘Surya’ and ‘Adityas’ , they are the Hindu Divine beings who represent the Sun and ‘L1’ denotes Lagrange point 1 which is the spacecraft’s next destination in space. It is also the first Indian space mission which is dedicated to study and observe the brightest star closest to the planet Earth.
The spacecraft is designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the space agency has designed it to study the solar atmosphere.
The spaceship will travel around 15 lakh kilometers and will reach the Langrange point 1 which is between the Earth and the Sun. It will study the solar atmosphere, solar magnetic storms and how it affects the Earth and its environment.
Nigar Shaji, is the Project director of the mission and Sankarsubramanian K as the Principal scientist.
Mission Objectives
The payloads on-board will provide major information to get knowledge about the Sun.
The other scientific objectives of the mission includes:
- To observe the atmospheric layers of the sun namely ‘Corona’, the outermost layer and ‘Chromosphere’, which is below the ‘Corona’.
- To study the heating, magnetic field of ‘Corona’ and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
- To determine the physical particle environment.
- To help scientists determine the reasons and process of solar eruptions.
- To observe the space condition, weather, origin and dynamics of solar wind.
Payloads On-board
There are seven payloads on-board in which four of them are for remote sensing that is dedicated to observe and monitor the solar atmosphere. The other three payloads are for in-situ observations to gain information.
Remote Sensing Payloads on-board includes –
- Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) – This instrument will provide visual representation and spectroscopy.
- Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) – It is capable of Photosphere and Chromosphere imaging-narrow and broadband.
- Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) – It is a Hard X-ray spectrometer and will study the white light emissions.
- High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) – It studies the X-ray flares from the Sun over a wide X-ray energy range and the Magnetometer is capable of measuring interplanetary magnetic fields.
In-situ Payloads On-board Includes –
- Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) – It is designed to study Solar wind and act as particles.
- Plasma Analyser Package For Aditya (PAPA) – this instrument will measure the properties of solar wind plasma in terms of density, constituents and temperature.
- Advanced Tri-axial High Resolution Digital Magnometers. – It is capable of measuring external magnetic fields and magnetometry.
Aditya – L1 Launch
After India created history by reaching the south pole of the moon, the Indian space agency launched Aditya – L1 to observe the brightest star closest to the planet Earth.
On 2nd September 2023, Indian Space research Organisation launched the spacecraft from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) which is situated in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Chain of Events
After the spacecraft lifted off the ground and invaded the sky, it gained a successful injection into an elliptical orbit around the Earth after flying about 63 minutes and 20 seconds.
Following this and as scheduled the spaceship performed a series of four Earthbound Maneuvers and on 19th September it escaped Earth’s orbit and headed towards the Lagrange Point 1.
According to the space agency, it will perform Halo Orbit insertion in January 2024.
