“Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun, is getting ready for the launch. The satellite realised at the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru has arrived at SDSC-SHAR (spaceport) in Sriharikota,” Isro said.
The Aditya-L1 spacecraft will study a number of properties of Sun, such as the dynamics and origins of coronal mass ejections and its home — L1 or the first Lagrange point of the Earth-Sun system — will allow it to orbit Sun at an almost constant distance from Earth, but without the planet ever eclipsing its view of our star.
The spacecraft will always be in the same direction from Earth as the Sun. So, as Earth rotates, no single ground station will always be in view of Aditya-L1. Using a global station network like ESA’s is the best way to exchange data and commands with this spacecraft as often as possible.
Isro Chairman S Somanath told TOI earlier: “We are expecting to launch Aditya by the end of August.” He had also said that the review committee had recommended additional payload tests to gain confidence.”
Days after the Chandrayaan-3 launch, Somanath had told TOI that the work on getting the launch vehicle, PSLV, was also ongoing and that it was progressing smoothly.
Aditya-L1 will be placed 1.5-million-km from Earth in a halo orbit around the L1 point, which provides a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time.
“The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors. Using the special vantage point [L1], four payloads directly view the Sun and the remaining three payloads carry out in-situ studies of particles and fields at L1, providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium,” according to Isro.
Aditya’s payloads are expected to provide some of the most crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particles and fields etc.
