On Saturday, the Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched its next mission to space. The objective of the new area is to set the satellite in the L1 region of the solar system to observe our closest star, the Sun.
A few days back, ISRO accomplished the goal of landing the uncrewed vehicle near the Moon’s South Pole. The space agency became the first country to land on the south pole of the Moon. ISRO moon mission is planned to find the water on the moon’s surface.
The research instrument onboard the uncrewed vehicle will inspect the soil and underneath to find the water safely stored under the top layer of the Moon. In the early mission to the Moon, the satellite instruments detected the water sign on the Moon’s surface.
Landing on the Moon has allowed the ISRO to observe the ground more closely and inspect the soil composition.
The Aditya-L1 probe is launched at 11:50 local time in the latest Sun mission. Live television broadcasting facilities were available, and hundreds of spectators were at the sight to experience the historic launch.
The launch went as planned, and everything on board seemed normal, as per the official at ISRO. Mission control at the ISRO is now taking the further step to maneuver the satellite to the direction of the Sun with its commonly used earth gravity maneuver strategy.
ISRO is known for its ability to run the space program at the lowest cost in the world. In the past, we have seen the Mangalyaan mission, which cost $73 million. Compared to the NASA and other space industry budgets, the budget is way less.
ISRO always uses gravitation assistance to maneuver the satellite in orbit. It helps the program reach its goal without carrying the extra fuel. The only problem with the gravitational service is the satellite has to spend more time around the Earth or any other space object to gain momentum once it has earned the required speed, and the satellite slingshot in the other thing’s direction.
Once the satellite is near the other object, another manual assistance is to capture the gravity of the additional space objects, such as the Moon. Once in the Moon’s orbit, the spacecraft stays in orbit and collects the data.
Similar gravitational assistance will be used in the latest Sun program. The spacecraft will stay in the Earth’s orbit for a while, and once it has gained enough speed, it will be thrown out of the Earth’s gravity to reach its final destination.
The ISRO plans to set the spacecraft in the L1 region, where the pull of the Sun and Earth cancel out each other. This means the spacecraft has to use less fuel to keep it in orbit.
NASA also takes advantage of the region where the gravity cancels out each other so the spacecraft can stay in orbit longer and keep doing science experiments for decades.
If we talk about the mission objectives, as per the official statements from the ISRO, the spacecraft carries special tools to observe the Sun’s outer layers.
During the four months of the Journey, the spacecraft will collect the vital data and send it back to the headquarters of the ISRO for further analysis. The primary mission objective is to learn more about our Sun and how it functions. Sun is the closest star to us, but we know nothing about it.
Before ISRO, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) had already placed the devices in orbit around the Sun to collect the data and take close pictures of the sun. The program has been going on since 1960. ISRO is the third country in the world to have launched a space mission to the Sun.
Japan and China have also tried the Sun observation mission earlier, but they were placed in the Earth orbit. If the ISRO becomes successful in the program, it will become the first Asian country to launch a Sun orbital mission.
ISRO has a modern spacecraft consisting of various instruments onboard designed to study coronal mass ejections from the SUN. The plasma and magnetic energy emitted from the SUN are very harmful to our satellites and electrical devices on the Earth.
Learning about the sun’s atmosphere will help us develop future technology to protect our satellites from coronal mass ejections. Also, the spacecraft will study the sun’s working and impact on our solar system.
ISRO’s Aditya will travel 1.5 million kilometers to reach the L1 orbit, where it will place itself and circle the SUN. Even though the distance seems too far from the Earth, it is just a 1 percent distance between the Earth and the Sun. So, you can imagine the sun is far from the planet, making observing and conducting science experiments challenging.
