After successfully landing Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon, ISRO is not resting on its laurels. Their next mission (Aditya L1) is on schedule to launch on 1st Sept 2023 and this will be the first space based Indian mission to study the Sun. The craft, named after the Hindi word for the sun, will be launched from the spaceport in Sriharikota using India’s heavy-duty launch vehicle, the PSLV, which will travel about 1.5 million km (932,000 miles). The craft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system, which gives it the advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any eclipses or blockages. So far only 3 other countries/entities have successfully launched Solar probes: NASA (US), DFVLR (Germany), ESA (European Union). ISRO will be the 4th to do so.
Citizens are invited to witness the launch from the Launch View Gallery at Sriharikota by registering at their website. This is an awesome improvement in the process to visit the launch site. A few years ago when Surabhi and Vinit wanted to take the kids to watch the launch, they ended up having to reach out to an ISRO scientist and use a personal connection to get access. Now we can do it via a website. The advantage is that this is building up the hype for ISRO and getting more people interested in space.
The Science Objectives of the mission are as follows:
- Study of Solar upper atmospheric (chromosphere and corona) dynamics.
- Study of chromospheric and coronal heating, physics of the partially ionized plasma, initiation of the coronal mass ejections, and flares
- Observe the in-situ particle and plasma environment providing data for the study of particle dynamics from the Sun.
- Physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism.
- Diagnostics of the coronal and coronal loops plasma: Temperature, velocity and density.
- Development, dynamics and origin of CMEs.
- Identify the sequence of processes that occur at multiple layers (chromosphere, base and extended corona) which eventually leads to solar eruptive events.
- Magnetic field topology and magnetic field measurements in the solar corona .
- Drivers for space weather (origin, composition and dynamics of solar wind .
Full details of the mission are available at the ISRO: ADITYA-L1 Website. Will write more after the launch.
– Suramya