Aditya L1 Mission Isro : India’s first solar probe mission, Aditya L1, successfully completed its third manoeuvre to Earth in the early hours of Sunday, September 10, ISRO said.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) also announced that the next mission is scheduled for September 15, 2023 at around 02:00 AM. Before entering the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L1, the spacecraft plans to complete one more Earth orbit.
The newly achieved orbit measures 296 km x 71,767 km. The space agency’s Telemetry, Tracking and Control (ISTRAC) network accomplished that mission.
“The third ground check (EBN#3) was successfully carried out by ISTRAC, Bengaluru. ISRO ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru, SDSC-SHAR and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this mission. The new orbit achieved is 296 km x 71767 km. The next operation (EBN#4) is scheduled for September 15, 2023 around 02:00. IST,” ISRO tweeted.
Aditya-L1 is India’s first space-based observatory designed to study the Sun from a halo orbit at the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The second ground run was successfully completed on September 5th and the first on September 3rd.
These manoeuvres are considered necessary during the 16-day orbit of the spacecraft around the Earth, allowing it to gather the necessary speed on its way to L1.
On September 2, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) successfully launched Aditya-L1 mission isro from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota.
According to the space agency, the spacecraft will reach its designated L1 orbit about 127 days after launch.
ISRO claims that in halo orbit, a spacecraft around L1 can enjoy an uninterrupted view of the sun without occultations or eclipses. This provides a significant advantage in real-time monitoring of solar activity and its impact on space weather.
Aditya-L1 will carry seven indigenous payloads developed by ISRO and national research laboratories, including the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru and the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune.
These payloads study the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outer layer of the sun, the corona, using electromagnetic, particle, and magnetic field detectors.
Four of these payloads will observe the Sun directly, while the remaining three will conduct in situ studies of particles and fields at the L1 Lagrange point, providing critical information on the progress of solar dynamics in the interplanetary environment.
Observations of the Aditya L1 mission isro payloads are expected to provide invaluable insights into coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, preburn and flare activity, space weather dynamics, and particle and field behaviour. According to the scientists’ vision, there are five Lagrangian points, or gravitational parking spaces, between the Earth and the Sun, where small objects can stay with minimal fuel consumption.
Named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, these points in space are favourable places for spacecraft to maintain their position when the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth balance the longitudinal force necessary for objects to move in line with them.
