BENGALURU: India's first solar mission Aditya-LI has arrived at ISRO’s spaceport in Sriharikota. The ISRO expects to launch Aditya-LI at the end of August or early September. The ISRO itself informed through social media that they are preparing for the launch of Aditya-LI. ISRO Chairman S Somanath said they are expecting to launch Aditya-LI by the end of August.
PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) August 14, 2023
Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun ☀️, is getting ready for the launch.
The satellite realised at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru has arrived at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.
More pics… pic.twitter.com/JSJiOBSHp1
The 400 kg Aditya satellite carries seven instruments including the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC). Aditya-LI’s mission is to study the sun from a fixed position at the Lagrange Point 1 between the earth and the sun. Several properties of the sun will be studied, including the dynamics and origin of coronal mass ejections.
The Lagrange point is the region where the gravitational forces of the earth and the sun create attraction and repulsion. Here, spacecraft can be parked in a fixed position, just like vehicles are parked on the earth. Fuel consumption will be minimal. Aditya is named L1 because it parks at the L1 point, 15 lakh km from earth. Aditya can see the sun uninterruptedly all the time from here.
Aditya also aims to observe the corona, the outermost region of the sun's atmosphere, the chromosphere, the transparent ring below the corona, and the photosphere, the visible surface of the sun. Aditya will have instruments to study particles from the sun and a magnetometer to study the magnetic field in vacuum orbit.