Illustration of all 5 Lagrange factors of Sun-Earth system. ISRO’s photo voltaic mission, Aditya-L1, shall be positioned around Lagrange level L1.
| Photo Credit: ANI
While the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Aditya-L1 spacecraft is on its method in direction of the Sun-Earth Lagrange’s Point 1 (L1), the space company has completed an assessment of the space situation around L1 to ensure safety of the spacecraft.
Launched on September 2, Aditya-L1 is India’s first mission devoted to finding out the Sun. The spacecraft commenced its journey L1, on September 18 and is anticipated to attain L1 by January 2024.
Aditya-L1 will function in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 level, positioned roughly 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
According to ISRO, halo orbits are periodic, three-dimensional orbits around a Lagrange Point (L1, L2 or L3) and contain an out-of-plane movement part relative to the first our bodies. The orbit is giant sufficient in dimension to be constantly considered from Earth and would seem to kind a halo around the Lagrange Points (right here L1 for Aditya L1).
There are at present 4 operational spacecraft at L1- WIND, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVER).
“Several operational spacecraft are currently stationed at the L1. These spacecraft at L1 provide vital early warnings on adverse space weather events that help protect orbiting space assets and ground-based infrastructure,” ISRO added.
Despite the extraordinarily sparse inhabitants in L1 and the huge separation between them, shut strategy assessment for an operational spacecraft at Lagrange Point Orbit (LPO) is fascinating as a result of of the big positional uncertainty and sensitivity to different perturbative forces.
“Orbit Determination for LPO requires tracking data collection over an extended period of time, typically a few days. The typical Orbit Determination accuracy is of the order of a few km. For the Aditya L1 mission, ISRO plans to carry out such analysis periodically to ensure safety and avoid any possibility of close approaches with other neighbouring spacecraft, with the support from NASA-JPL,” ISRO mentioned.
