By R. Anil Kumar
- Once it reaches the L1 point, we have to fire the engine once again so that it does not go further
- When successfully placed on L1 point, it will be there for the next five years, gathering all the data which are very important not for India alone but for the entire world
- ISRO has made a plans to build an Indian space station, called ‘Bharatiya space station’ during the ‘Amrit Kaal’ as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instructions
Bangalore, December 24. India’s maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 will reach its destination, the Lagrangian point (L1) which is located 1.5 million km from Earth, on January 6, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S. Somanath said.
The mission, the first Indian space-based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit L1, was launched by ISRO on September 2, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota. “Aditya L1 will enter the L1 point on January 6. That is what is expected. Exact time will be announced at appropriate time,” Somanath said.
“When it reaches the L1 point, we have to fire the engine once again so that it does not go further.
It will go to that point, and once it reaches that point, it will rotate around it and will be trapped at L1,” he said.
Once Aditya L1 reaches its destination, it will help measure various events happening on the Sun for the next five years.
When successfully placed on L1 point, it will be there for the next five years, gathering all the data which are very important not for India alone but for the entire world.
The data will be very useful to understand the dynamics of the Sun and how it affects our life,” the ISRO chief said.
How India is going to become a technologically powerful country is very important, he said.
ISRO has made a plan to build an Indian space station, called ‘Bharatiya space station’ during the ‘Amrit Kaal’ as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instructions, Somanath said.
“In the space sector we are seeing an emergence of new actors. We are going to support, encourage and build the economy around the new generation,” he said, adding that India cannot become a leader in everything and that it should focus on those sectors where it can.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairperson S. Somanath said that the exact time of the Aditya-L1 mission will be announced later.
What is the Aditya L-1 mission?
Aditya-L1, India’s first solar mission, was launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
The mission aims to study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first Sun-earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from Earth.
Earlier this month, ISRO said that the Solar Wind Ion Spectrometer (SWIS), the second instrument in the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload is operational.
According to the space agency, ASPEX comprises two instruments – the Solar Wind Ion Spectrometer (SWIS) and the Supra-Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS). While the STEPS instrument started operating on September 10 while, the SWIS instrument was activated on November 2, 2023.
