India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, on Saturday set off on a 125-day journey to the Sun in its attempt to study various elements relating to Earth’s nearest star, after being put into the orbit by a PSLV rocket that touched a new technical milestone in the launch vehicle segment.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, who witnessed the launch from the Mission Control Centre (MCC) here, dubbed it as a “Sunshine moment” for the country..
“Congratulations! The Aditya-L1 spacecraft has been injected in an elliptical orbit of 235/19,500 km which is intended very precisely, by the PSLV, a very unique mission mode here, with the upper stage of the PSLV taking two burn sequences for injecting the primary satellite for the first time,” ISRO Chairman S Somanath said from the MCC.
“I want to congratulate PSLV for such a very different mission approach today to do this mission of Aditya L1 to put it into the right orbit. From now, the Aditya L1 will take its journey…after some earth manoeuvres it will start its journey to the L1 point, a very long journey of almost 125 days. So let us wish all the best to Aditya L1 spacecraft for its long journey to put it into the Halo orbit of L1,” he said.
The spacecraft, after traveling about 1.5 million km from the Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 which is considered closest to the Sun. Among others, it will send pictures of the sun for scientific experiments.
According to scientists, there are five Lagrangian points (or parking areas) between the Earth and the Sun where a small object tends to stay if put there. The Lagrange Points are named after Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange for his prize-winning paper—“Essai sur le Problème des Trois Corps, 1772.
” The Sun is a giant sphere of gas and Aditya-L1 would study its outer atmosphere. Aditya-L1 will neither land on the Sun nor approach it any closer, ISRO said. The objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission includes study of the coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), dynamics of solar atmosphere and temperature anisotropy.
Following Saturday’s launch Aditya-L1, weighing about 1,480.7 kg, stays in Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it undergoes five manoeuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey towards the Sun.
Nigar Shaji, Project Director said it was a dream come true for the team Aditya L1. “I am extremely happy that Aditya L1 has been injected into the precise orbit flawlessly by PSLV as always. And Aditya L1 solar panels are deployed and it is being normal,” she said. Once Aditya L1 is commissioned it will be an asset to heliophysics of the country and even to the global scientific fraternity, Shaji added.
