Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced the launch of its next big project, the Aditya-L1 Mission, India’s first solar mission that could revolutionise the understanding of the Sun’s dynamics and space weather. ISRO has set the date for the launch of its first-ever solar mission on 2 September, Saturday. According to ISRO, the Aditya-L1 mission is the first space-based observatory-class Indian solar mission to study the Sun. It will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point (L1) of the Sun-Earth system.
ISRO scientists have used ‘XL’, the more powerful variant of the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) that would carry the spacecraft on Saturday along with the seven payloads. Similar PSLV-XL variants were used in the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008 and the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) in 2013.
Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), which is 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun. It will revolve around the Sun with the same relative position and hence can see the Sun continuously.
Aditya-L1 will be launched by PSLV-C57 rocket on September 2 at 11:50 AM. It carries seven payloads to study the Sun, four of which will observe the light from the Sun and the remaining three will measure insitu parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields. Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), which is 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun.