Devanjana Mukherjee, Khabri Media
ISRO has done an assessment of the space situation around L1 to ensure safety of the spacecraft while it is on its way towards Sun.
Pic: Social Media
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday informed that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which is carrying out India’s maiden mission to study the Sun, is “healthy” and “on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1) – which is about 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth.
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A Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM), originally provisioned, was performed on October 6, 2023, for about 16 s. It was needed to correct the trajectory evaluated after tracking the Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuver performed on September 19, 2023. TCM ensures that the spacecraft is on its intended path towards the Halo orbit insertion around L1.
Launched on September 2, Aditya-L1 is India’s first mission dedicated to studying the Sun, the spacecraft commenced its journey L1, on September 18, henceforth starting its data collection journey. On September 25th, it made an assessment of the space situation around Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1.
Pic: Social Media
Let’s view some of the key objectives of ADITYA L1 that will be studied during its historic journey.
- Solar Corona: The mission will observe the solar corona, which is the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, to better understand its physical properties and dynamics.
- Solar Wind: Aditya-L1 will investigate the nature and origin of solar wind and its impact on space weather and the Earth’s magnetosphere.
- Space Weather Prediction: The data collected by Aditya-L1 will aid in improving space weather predictions, which are important for satellite and communication systems, as well as for the safety of astronauts in space.
- Understanding Solar Variability: The mission will contribute to our understanding of the Sun’s variability and its influence on Earth’s climate and weather patterns.
- Solar Magnetic Activity: Aditya-L1 will study solar magnetic fields and their influence on solar activities like solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
Named after the Sanskrit word Aditya meaning Sun, the respective project is one of the most important missions of ISRO for advancing our knowledge of the Sun and its effects on space weather, which can have practical implications for Earth’s technology and communication systems.
