Aditya-L1, India’s debut expedition for its “Sun mission”, is scheduled to reach its ultimate target orbit on Saturday, more than four months after it launched off from ISRO’s Sriharikota launchpad.
The approximately 1,500-kilogramme satellite, built at a cost of 400 crores, would serve as a prototype space-based Indian laboratory to study the sun about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
At roughly 4 p.m., the satellite will be deployed in a circular orbit round Lagrange point 1 (L1). The last placement site was selected for its excellent location, which is unaffected by eclipses and may be utilized to continually watch the Sun.
This operation (which will take place at approximately 4 p.m. on Saturday) will lock the Aditya-L1 into an illuminated orbit around L1. If we fail to do this, it may continue its path, maybe closer to the Sun,” an ISRO scientist told the news organization PTI.
The space observatories will monitor the shifting space weather and alert scientists to adverse events such as solar storms and outbursts that might disrupt satellite operations. A solar storm is a massive magnetic outburst on the Sun that can have far-reaching consequences for the whole solar system.
Mr Somnath stated that India has resources in space worth over 50,000 crores, including over 50 functioning satellites that must be shielded from the Sun’s fury.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which will carry seven payloads, will also perform scientific studies using electromagnetic, particle, and magnetic field detectors to better comprehend the photosphere, chromosphere, and the Sun’s outermost layers (the corona).
Furthermore, the satellite intends to add to the knowledge of atmospheric dynamics, particle propagation research, and the evaluation of energies in the interstellar medium.