Post historic lunar landing, India eyes the Sun today with Aditya L1 spacecraft

With less than five hours left for ISRO to launch the Aditya L1 spacecraft on Saturday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India today will embark on its first solar mission soon after scripting history last month by successfully making a soft landing on the Moon’s South Pole.The country’s first solar mission Aditya L1 on board the PSLV will lift off from Sriharikota on Saturday for its 125-day voyage towards the Sun. Aditya L1 is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of solar wind.The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload of Aditya L1, will send 1,440 images per day to the ground station for analysis on reaching the intended orbit.VELC is the largest and technically most challenging payload on Aditya-L1. It was integrated, tested, and calibrated at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics’s (IIA) CREST campus in Hoskote. This was done with substantial collaboration with ISRO.VELC carries seven payloads to study the Sun, four of which will observe the light from the Sun and the remaining three will measure in situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.Scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) have said, the 190 kg VELC payload will send images for five years, which is the nominal life of the satellite, but it could last long depending on the fuel consumption.IIA scientists expect the first images to be available by February-end. “The satellite is expected to be put into orbit in the middle of January and then we will do the test if all the systems are working properly and by the end of February we expect to get the regular data,” professor Jagdev Singh said.The main science drivers of Aditya-L1 are to understand the origin, dynamics, and propagation of coronal mass ejections and to help solve the coronal heating problem.Once the rocket lifts off from Sriharikota, it will be placed in a low-earth orbit (LEO) around the Earth. Subsequently, its orbit will be made more elliptical and, later, the spacecraft will be propelled towards the L1 point exiting the earth’s gravitational pull. It will take about four months for Aditya-L1 to reach its precise orbit.(With inputs from agencies).