Aditya L1, ISRO’s mission to study Sun, set to be placed in final orbit tomorrow

Aditya L1, ISRO’s mission to study Sun, set to be placed in final orbit tomorrow

Subject :Science and Tech

Section: Space tech

Context: India’s maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 is set to reach its intended destination L1 point on January 6, 2024

More on news:

• Aditya L1 has successfully undergone four earth-bound maneuvers and a Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion maneuvers.
• The Aditya L1 spacecraft is expected to reach the Lagrangian point (L1) on January 6, and will attempt a crucial maneuver to bind the spacecraft to an orbit around L1.
• ISRO Scientists and Engineers from the Mission Operations Complex of ISTRAC will perform this crucial maneuver which will bind Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1.
• Upon reaching its final destination, the spacecraft will be able to view the sun without any eclipses.

About Aditya L1:

• Aditya L1 is  India’s first mission to study the Sun.
• Aditya-L1 is also ISRO’s second astronomy observatory-class mission after AstroSat (2015).
• It was launched using the Polar satellite Launch Vehicle.
• The spacecraft will travel 1.5 million km from the Earth to the Lagrange 1 or L1 point between the Earth and the Sun.
• The main objective of the mission is to get a deeper understanding of the star closest to us, and how its radiation, heat, flow of particles, and magnetic fields affects us.
• The main payload is the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VLEC) which was designed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and will help study the solar corona from the lowermost part upwards.
• The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) designed by the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) will capture the UV image of the solar photosphere and chromosphere.
• The Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) and High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) are developed by the UR Rao Satellite Centre and will help in studying  X-ray flares.
• The Aditya Solar wind Particle EXperiment (ASPEX) developed by ISRO’s Physical Research Laboratory and Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) developed by Space Physics Laboratory of ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre are designed to study the solar wind and energetic ions.
• Advanced Tri-axial High-Resolution Digital Magnetometers (MAG) will measure the interplanetary magnetic fields at the L1 point.
• The spacecraft also has a coronagraph that will allow scientists to look much closer to the surface of the Sun and complement the data from NASA and European Space Agency’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission.

Lagrange points:

• There are five Lagrange points i.e. L1 to L5, between any two orbiting celestial bodies. 
• These points can act as parking spots in space where the gravitational pull of the celestial objects equals the centripetal force required to keep a satellite in orbit.
• This means satellites placed at Lagrange points do not need to expend a lot of fuel to remain in position.
• Lagrange point 1 or L1 is one of the five points which is  located around  1.5 million kilometers away, where the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Earth are in equilibrium.
• Both the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA- Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) have placed their satellites at L1.