ISRO's Adita L1 has reached the solar orbit

[Ajay0]

ISRO's   Aditya L1 has reached the solar orbit. 

India’s maiden solar mission Aditya-L1 reached the L1 point on January 6, 127 days after it was launched on September 2, 2023. The point is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth and enables the spacecraft to view the sun continuously

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-67871797

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/isros-aditya-l1-successfully-placed-in-a-halo-orbit-around-l1-point/article67712914.ece

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ISRO Chairman S Somnath told reporters that the halo orbit insertion process was carried out as intended. “Today’s event was to place the Aditya L-1 in the precise halo orbit. The spacecraft was moving towards the halo orbit but we had to make some corrections to put it in the right place. If we do not do the correction today there could have been a possibility that it could escape from this point (L-1 point). But we would not have allowed that to happen as there are some contingencies in place, but I am only telling mathematically it can escape.”

“So that has been very precisely done [placing the spacecraft in the halo orbit]. What we have achieved today is exact placement based on our measurement and very correct prediction of the velocity requirement. Right now in our calculation the spacecraft is in the right place,” he added.

The ISRO said that the halo orbit insertion of Aditya-L1 was accomplished at 4 p.m. and that the final phase of the manoeuvre involved firing of control engines for a short duration.

“The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth on the continuously moving Sun–Earth line with an orbital period of about 177.86 earth days. This halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit at L1 involving Sun, Earth and a spacecraft. This specific halo orbit is selected to ensure a mission lifetime of 5 years, minimising station-keeping manoeuvres and thus fuel consumption and ensuring a continuous, unobstructed view of the Sun,” the ISRO said after the orbit Insertion was accomplished.

It further said that the insertion of Aditya-L1 into this halo orbit presents a critical mission phase, which demands precise navigation and control.

“A successful insertion further involved constant monitoring along with the adjustment of the spacecraft’s speed and position by using onboard thrusters. The success of this insertion not only signifies ISRO’s capabilities in such complex orbital manoeuvres, but it gives confidence to handle future interplanetary missions,” the space agency added.

 

[Ajay0]

Article on Nigar Shaji, the Indian lady who was the Mission Director who lead the complex scientific mission of putting India’s first solar observatory Aditya-L1 at Langrang point L1

https://www.theweek.in/news/sci-tech/2024/01/06/who-is-nigar-shaji-the-woman-behind-aditya-l-1-mission.html
 

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Shaji began her career in the ISRO in 1987 when she joined the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SHAAR). She later worked in different roles at the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, before becoming the mission director of Aditya-L1mission. 

Shaji had played a major role in the successful launch of the Aditya L-1 mission on September 2, 2023, aboard the PSLV-C57 rocket. The mission is aimed to profoundly enhance our understanding of the Sun, including its outermost layer, the corona. The Aditya L-1 mission’s duration is estimated to be approximately 5.2 years, offering an extended period for solar research. 

Shaji has also worked on different other projects before the Aditya L-1 mission. She has actively worked on the design and development of Indian remote sensing, communication, and interplanetary satellites. She also served as the associate project director for the Indian remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A. 

Shaji has always emphasized the favorable environment for women scientists at the ISRO. where recognition is based on merit and abilities rather than gender. 

 

 

[Ajay0]

ISRO successfully deploys magnetometer boom on board Aditya-L1 spacecraft.
 

https://www.zeebiz.com/india/news-aditya-l1-mission-launch-date-update-isro-successfully-deploys-magnetometer-boom-on-board-aditya-l1-spacecraft-chandrayaan-3-273660

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ISRO has successfully deployed the magnetometer boom on board the Aditya-L1 satellite to measure the low intensity interplanetary magnetic field in space.

The six metre-long magnetometer boom is deployed in the Halo orbit at the Lagrange point L-1, on January 11, the space agency said, noting that the boom had been in stowed condition for 132 days since the Aditya-L1 launch.

 

[Ajay0]

The Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payload onboard Aditya-L1 has successfully detected the impact of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) including those recorded during February 10-11. CMEs are massive eruptions of charged particles and fields from the sun’s outermost atmosphere, its corona.
 

https://www.deccanherald.com/science/space/aditya-l1-payload-detects-cme-impact-on-solar-wind-2907240

[Ajay0]

 ISRO's Aditya-L1 will track the Sun on Monday as it gets completely cloaked by the Moon during the Total Solar Eclipse.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/science/total-solar-eclipse-today-april-8-2024-isros-aditya-l1-to-track-the-sun-during-darkness-101712535333181.html

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India's solar probe Aditya L1 will track the behaviour and rays of the Sun on Monday, April 8, during the total solar eclipse. During this time, the Sun will briefly get completely cloaked by the Moon, creating a moment of complete darkness in several countries.

Aditya L1, which is the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) maiden solar mission, is in a position to track the Sun during the total solar eclipse. This will help the ISRO further study the chromosphere and corona of the star.

Aditya L1 will use two of its six instruments to track the Sun during the solar eclipse. These two instruments are the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and the Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT).

 

 

[Ajay0]

Aditya L-1's role in helping to prevent a communication catastrophe on Earth...

https://www.theweek.in/news/sci-tech/2023/11/13/how-aditya-l-1-is-helping-in-detecting-and-monitoring-solar-flares.html
 

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 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced that it had reached a groundbreaking milestone in solar research when its High-Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) aboard India’s first solar space observatory, Aditya L1, “recorded the impulsive phase of a high-energy solar flare” during its maiden observation on October 29, 2023. HELIOS was developed by the Space Astronomy Group at ISRO’s UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru. 

HEL1OS has been meticulously designed to monitor high-energy X-ray activity emitted by the Sun with fast timing measurements and high-resolution spectrums, besides quasi-periodic pulsations of hard X-rays, enabling scientists to study these high-energy emissions and electron acceleration and transport during impulsive phases of solar flares. 

 Though Aditya L1 mission’s major scientific goal is to carry out a larger, comprehensive study of the Sun’s dynamics and its over-arching influence on Earth’s climate, in particular, and space weather in general, by studying solar phenomena up close, in real-time, its immediate mission is to study how solar storms and flares impact Earth and human space explorations, leading to more precise forecasts of space weather that result in reducing potential harmful effects of these storms on space missions and technologies on Earth.