Aditya L1, ISRO’s first Sun mission set to be injected into final orbit tomorrow
Aditya L1, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) maiden solar mission, is set for its final manoeuvre to reach its destination and will be injected into its final orbit on the evening of January 6. Upon reaching its final destination, the spacecraft will be able to view the sun without any eclipses.
Launched on September 2 last year, the spacecraft has undergone four earth-bound manoeuvres and a Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) manoeuvres, all successfully.
ISRO chief S Somanath told news agency ANI on Monday “Aditya-L1 is going to reach its L1 point on January 6 at 4pm and we are going to do the final manoeuvre to keep it there.”
Here are the top five things to know about the solar mission:
After a flight duration of 63 minutes and 20 seconds on January 6, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft would have achieved a successful injection into an elliptical orbit measuring 235×19500 km around the Earth.
Aditya-L1 stands as the inaugural Indian space-based observatory designed to examine the Sun from a halo orbit positioned around the first Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L1), situated approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru Director told The Indian Express, “Aditya L1 will make it to a halo orbit around the L1 point. As the Earth moves around the Sun, the L1 point will also move. So does the halo orbit.”
An ISRO official told The Indian Express that “Aditya L1 has already reached the L1 point and the manoeuvre (on January 6) will put it in the desired orbit. Without getting into the orbit, the spacecraft will continue to travel towards the Sun”.
The Lagrange Point is a unique region where gravitational forces between the Earth and the Sun reach equilibrium. While absolute neutralization is not achievable due to the influence of other celestial bodies such as the Moon, Mars, and Venus, the L1 point provides a stable position for observational purposes.
Aditya-L1 is equipped with seven scientific payloads, all developed indigenously by ISRO and national research laboratories. These payloads are specifically designed to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic particle and magnetic field detectors.