Aditya L1 onboard the PSLV-C57 the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on September 1, 2023 on the eve of its launch. Photo: X/@ISRO by way of PTI
India’s first solar observatory mission, named Aditya-L1, will be launched onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 11.50 am on Saturday.
On Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commenced the 23-hour 40-minute countdown for the launch of the Aditya-L1 mission.
Approximately sixty-three minutes after liftoff, the satellite tv for pc separation is predicted to happen because the PSLV will launch the Aditya-L1 spacecraft right into a extremely eccentric earth-bound orbit at round 12.53 pm.
This PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 mission can be counted as one of many longest missions involving ISRO’s workhorse launch automobile. However, the longest of the PSLV missions continues to be the 2016 PSLV-C35 mission which was accomplished two hours, quarter-hour and 33 seconds after lift-off.
Long journey
Following the launch, Aditya-L1 will keep in earth-bound orbits for 16 days, throughout which it’s going to bear 5 manoeuvres to acquire the required velocity for its journey.
“Subsequently, Aditya-L1 undergoes a Trans-Lagrangian1 insertion manoeuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point. Upon arrival at the L1 point, another manoeuvre binds Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun,” ISRO mentioned.
Aditya-L1 will keep roughly 1.5 million km away from the earth, directed in the direction of the solar; that is about 1% of the space between the earth and the solar.
Studying the solar corona
The Aditya L-1 payloads are anticipated to present essential info to perceive the issue of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare actions and their traits, dynamics of area climate, propagation of particles and fields and many others.
The seven payloads onboard the satellite tv for pc are: Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), High Energy L1 Orbiting x-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS), Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA), and Advanced Tri-axial High Resolution Digital Magnetometers.
The main payload is VELC, which was developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and is designed to examine the solar corona and the dynamics of coronal mass ejections.
The Aditya-L1 satellite tv for pc positioned within the halo orbit across the L1 level has a serious benefit of repeatedly viewing the solar with none occultation or eclipse. It is predicted to present a higher benefit in observing the solar actions repeatedly.
Tracking solar quakes
“There are certain activities which take place around the sun which we call solar quakes. In the aftermath of these solar quakes, a lot of energetic material from the sun is thrown out. Some of them can be directed towards the earth and they can travel at a maximum speed of 3,000 km per hour and reach the near-earth space within 15 hours,” Ramesh R., the principal investigator of the VELC payload, instructed The Hindu.
Prof. Ramesh added that when the energetic materials reaches the earth, it might not trigger any bodily harm, but it surely does have the potential to cripple life on earth.
“Our present-day life scenario depends very much on the stationary satellites which are parked in space be it for our internet connectivity, cell phone or TV connectivity. These charged particle clouds can engulf the satellites and damage all the electronics on board the satellites. Hence, we do not know when the solar quakes will happen, it can happen any time of the day so it is very essential to observe the sun on a 24-hour basis and carry out observations,” Prof. Ramesh added.
