A day after the historic landing on the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) announced they are prepared for their next mission. Aditya-L1, which happens to be their Sun mission spacecraft is expected to launch on September 2.
The Aditya-L1 mission will be launched by an Isro PSLV rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota. Nilesh M Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre-Isro, Ahmedabad said on Thursday that the Aditya-L1 mission is ready and waiting. The mission is designed to read the Sun and the spacecraft will be 1.5km away from home.
The Aditya-L1 mission represents India’s long-awaited hard work to prepare for a Sun mission. It is India’s ambitious endeavor to explore the Sun, a celestial body that most scientists believe is full of surprises. It has excited and fascinated most space enthusiasts and scientists for centuries.
About the Aditya-L1 mission:
Aditya-L1 will be placed in a highly elliptical orbit, allowing it to conduct close observation of the Sun. It will monitor solar activity, and provide us better understanding of our own star. It carries seven specific payloads for this purpose. The mission is called L1 because it will be in a Halo orbit at the L1 point between the Earth and the Sun.
Aditya-L1 mission is going to be India’s first space-based Indian Observatory that is programmed to study the Sun. It will study the properties of the sun’s photosphere, which is considered the sort of surface of the Sun. It will also study the layer above it called the Chromosphere, from where electromagnetic radiation is emitted strongly.
However, Aditya-L1 will also study the Corona, that extends to millions of kilometers into space. Aditya is also designed to study other solar phenomena such as the large temperature difference between the upper and the lower atmospheres of the Sun. Also, how energy transfer occurs between various layers of the Sun. Another important study that Aditya will be doing is how solar activity affects the day-to-day functioning of Earth’s atmosphere and planetary system.
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The spacecraft will be equipped with a Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) which will be used for imaging and spectroscopy of the Sun to better understand the science powering the star. It will carry a UV telescope that will study various layers of the Sun in new wavelengths that we have not observed the sun in before.
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