Aditya L1 spacecraft successfully enters final Halo orbit. What next?

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday successfully placed Adiyta L1, the first space based Indian observatory to study the Sun, into its destination orbit Lagrange Point 1 which is around 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. According to ISRO officials, a satellite in a Halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultations or eclipses.

Aditya L1 on Saturday successfully parked at Lagrange Point 1 to study Sun. “Halo Orbit Insertion (HOI) of its solar observatory spacecraft, Aditya L1 was accomplished at around 4 pm on January 6, 2024. The final phase of the maneuver involved the firing of control engines for a short duration. The success of this insertion not only signifies ISRO's capabilities in such complex orbital manoeuvres, but it but gives confidence to handle future interplanetary missions,” ISRO said in a statement.

Wrap up the year gone by & gear up for 2024 with HT! Click here What next for the mission? According to officials, the Aditya L1 spacecraft will now begin its transition from the cruise phase to the orbit phase following which it will start observing the Sun and discover the various phenomena emanating from it.

"The Halo Orbit Insertion has been done and it is a very important moment in the journey of Aditya L1…Now during its transition, we will be able to do all the science operations. We look forward to the operations of the instrument,” the director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics Annapurni Subramaniam told the news agency PTI.

PM Modi congratulates ISRO Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday congratulated the scientists for their "extraordinary feat" and said that the successful Aditya L1 mission is a testament to their “relentless dedication”. “India creates yet another landmark. India’s first solar observatory Aditya L1 reaches it’s destination.

It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realising among the most complex and intricate space missions. I join the nation in applauding this extraordinary feat. We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

What is Aditya L1 mission? Named after the Hindi word for the Sun ‘ Aditya’, the mission follows India's recent achievement of being the first country to successfully land on the moon's south pole. Chandrayaan 3 landed on the unexplored south pole of the moon in August last year. Aditya L1 carries seven payloads designed to observe the photosphere, chromosphere, and the outermost layers of the Sun, known as the corona.

These payloads employ a combination of electromagnetic particle and magnetic field detectors. It also offers a comprehensive study of solar dynamics. The key objectives of the mission include unravelling the mysteries of the chromosphere and corona, providing crucial data for understanding particle dynamics emanating from the Sun along with delving into the physics of the solar corona and its heating processes, analysing temperatures, velocity, and density of plasma within corona loops, and identifying processes at various layers leading to solar eruptive events and investigating magnetic field topology.

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