September 06, 2023
By Sonakshi Kandhari
Aditya- L1 is India’s first-ever space mission to study the sun. The Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL) is employed for this and was launched on 2 September, 2023 at 11:50 a.m from Sriharikota spaceport,Andhra Pradesh.
Image Source; ISRO
On 3 September, 2023, the first Earth-bound manoeuvre took place at ISTRAC, Bengaluru, achieving an orbit position of 245 x 22459 kilometres. The satellite was in perfect health and functioning efficiently.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
On 5 September, 2023, the second earth-bound manoeuvre was completed successfully, achieving an orbit position of 282 x 40225 kilometres.
Image Source; ISRO
‘Aditya’ means ‘sun’ in Sanskrit, and L1 is Lagrange point 1 in the sun–earth system, located 1.5 million kilometres from the earth. The spacecraft is positioned in a halo orbit at L1 to study the sun.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
The purpose of this mission is to study the behaviour of the sun. It also aims to study the magnetic fields, solar winds and their effect on earth’s climate and technology.
Image Source; ISRO
It aims to study solar upper atmosphere dynamics, heating processes, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and flares and analyse particle dynamics and magnetic fields to understand solar-driven space weather drivers.
Image source: Alamy
The seven payloads on Aditya L1 have two main purposes: four allow for direct solar viewing and three facilitate in-situ observations. Notably, VELC (Visible Emission Line Coronagraph) provides 1440 images to ground stations every day.
Image Source; ISRO