After days of successfully landing Indias Moon Mission- Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to achieve another milestone as its trusted PSLV will carry Aditya L1 mission on a 125-day voyage, aiming for the Sun on Saturday.Here are 10 points all about Indias Sun Mission – Aditya L1The ISRO on Friday announced the countdown for the launch of Aditya L1 onboard PSLV C57 began at Andhra Pradeshs Sriharikota, which houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at 11.50 am today (September 02).The National Space Agencys chairman S Somanath said that the Sun mission will embark on a voyage of 125 days to reach the exact radius. Aditya L1 is designed to provide remote observations of the solar corona. It will also conduct in-situ observations of the solar winds at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth, said ISRO chief.There are five Lagrangian points between the Sun and the Earth, and the L1 point in the Halo orbit which is all set to provide a greater advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occurrence of an eclipse, according to ISRO.Following its scheduled launch on September 02 at 11.50 am, Aditya L1 stays in Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it undergoes five manoeuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey.Then, the Sun Mission undergoes a trans-agrangian1 insertion manoeuvre, which will mark the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point.Now, once it has reached the L1 point, another manoeuvre binds Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun. The satellite spends its whole mission life orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.On embarking on such a mission, the ISRO said that the Sun is the nearest star and, therefore, can be studied in much more detail as compared to the others. By studying the Sun much more could be learnt about stars in the Milky Way as well as in various other galaxies, they added.Notably, the primary payload of Indias Sun Mission, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph would be sending 1,440 images per day to the ground station for analysis on reaching the intended orbit. VELC, the largest and technically most challenging payload on Aditya-L1, was integrated, tested, and calibrated at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics CREST (Centre for Research and Education in Science Technology), campus in Hoskote near Bengaluru with substantial collaboration with the space agency.Aditya L1s key objectives include understanding the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution, and temperature anisotropy, among others.Further, ISRO chief S Somanath offered prayers on Friday at Chengalamma Parameshwari Temple in Tirupati district, ahead of the launch of the Aditya L1 mission. He had visited the temple ahead of the Chandrayaan-3 mission too.
