Aditya (satellite)

Aditya-L1
Mission type Solar research
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass 400 kilograms (880 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 2019-20[1]
Rocket PSLV-XL[2]
Launch site Satish Dhawan Space Centre
Contractor ISRO
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Lagrangian point-1
Epoch Planned

Aditya (Sanskrit: आदित्य, lit: Sun,[3]  pronunciation ) or Aditya-L1 is a spacecraft whose mission is to study the Sun. It was conceptualised by the Advisory Committee for Space Research in January 2008.[2] It has been designed[4] and will be built in collaboration between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)[2] and various Indian research organizations and will be launched by ISRO around 2019-2020.[5] This will be the first Indian space mission to study the Sun, and also the first Indian mission to be placed at Lagrangian point L1[6] -- far away from the Earth from where continuous solar observations are possible. Only NASA and ESA have successfully placed satellites at the L1 point as of date. An experimental budget of 3 Crore INR has been allocated it for the financial year 2016-17.[7]

Overview

Aditya-L1 is a solar mission. It was initially envisaged as a small, Low-Earth Orbiting Satellite with a coronagraph to study the million-degree solar outer atmosphere known as the solar corona. Subsequently, the scope of the mission has been enhanced and it is now planned to be a comprehensive solar and space environment observatory to be placed at the Lagrangian point L1. This enhanced mission named Aditya-L1 has recently been approved by the Government of India.

A Satellite placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses. The Aditya-L1 mission will be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth. The satellite carries a total of seven payloads with diverse objectives, including but not limited to, the coronal heating problem, solar wind acceleration, coronal magnetometry, origin and monitoring of near-UV solar radiation (which drives Earth's upper atmospheric dynamics and global climate), coupling of the solar photosphere to chromosphere and corona, in-situ characterizations of the space environment around Earth by measuring energetic particle fluxes and magnetic fields of the solar wind and solar magnetic storms that have adverse effects on space and ground-based technologies.

The outer layers of the Sun, extending to thousands of kilometers above the disc (photosphere) is termed as the corona. It has a temperature of more than a million kelvins, which is much higher than the solar disc temperature of around 6000 K. How the corona gets heated to such high temperatures is still an unanswered question in solar physics with far-reaching implications for the heating of stellar atmospheres and magnetic reconnection or wave-induced plasma phenomena across the Universe. Aditya-L1 with additional experiments can now provide observations of Sun's photosphere, chromosphere and corona. In addition, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun and reaching the L1 orbit, and the magnetometer payload will measure the variation in magnetic field strength at the halo orbit around L1. These payloads have to be placed at a location with minimal influence from the Earth’s magnetic field, which could not have been achieved at the low Earth orbit.

Payloads

Thus the enhanced Aditya-L1 project will enable a comprehensive understanding of the dynamical processes of the sun and address some of the outstanding problems in solar physics.

References

  1. ↑ Sharma, Richa (22 December 2013). "After Mars, India to Secure Place on Sun". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "ISRO planning to launch satellite to study the sun". The Hindu. 13 January 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  3. ↑ "Aditya". Spoken Sanskrit. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
  4. ↑ "After Chandrayaan-1's moon voyage, ISRO's Aditya to scout sun's surf". United News of India. 11 November 2008. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
  5. ↑ India's 1st solar mission to help address some problems in solar physics: ISRO Ecomomic Times 26 January 2016
  6. ↑ The sun shines on India's Aditya The Hindu 15 November 2015
  7. ↑ "Notes on Demands for Grants, 2016-2017" (PDF) (Press release). Department of Space. Retrieved September 9, 2016.


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