Aditya L1 Mission Highlights: Countdown begins for Solar mission, mission payload to send 1,440 images per day

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ISRO's countdown for launch of historic Solar mission has begun 

ISRO scientists have used 'XL', the more powerful variant of the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) that would carry the spacecraft on Saturday along with the seven payloads. Similar PSLV-XL variants were used in the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008 and the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) in 2013.

ISRO chief S Somanath offered prayers at Chengalamma Parameshwari Temple in Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh ahead of the launch of #AdityaL1Mission.

The satellite is expected to be put into orbit in the middle of January and then we will do the test if all the systems are working properly and by the end of February we expect to get the regular data

Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), which is 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun. It will revolve around the Sun with the same relative position and hence can see the Sun continuously.

Aditya-L1 will be launched by PSLV-C57 rocket on September 2 at 11:50 AM. It carries seven payloads to study the Sun, four of which will observe the light from the Sun and the remaining three will measure insitu parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields. Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian Point 1 (L1), which is 1.5 million km from the Earth in the direction of the Sun.

The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the primary payload of Aditya L1 -- the first space based Indian mission to study the Sun, set for launch on Saturday -- will 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's (IIA) CREST (Centre for Research and Education in Science Technology) campus in Hoskote

Explaining the need to study the Sun, Professor and In-Charge Scientist at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Dr R Ramesh told PTI that just as there are earthquakes on Earth, there are something called solar quakes - called as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) - on the surface of the Sun.

When the country's maiden solar mission, Aditya L1 onboard the reliable PSLV lifts off from Sriharikota on Saturday for its 125-day voyage towards the Sun, the liquid propulsion systems developed by a key ISRO arm here will play a crucial role in propelling it.

Aditya L1 Mission LIVE: After the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3, ISRO is now set to launch country's maiden solar mission Aditya-L1. Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed for providing remote observations of the solar corona and in situ observations of the solar wind at L1 (Sun-Earth Lagrangian point), which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the earth. Read more here

It is a soft X-ray spectrometer onboard Aditya-L1. The payload is designed to measure the solar soft X-ray flux to study solar fares.

The Solar Ultra-violet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) payload images the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultra-violet (UV) and also measures the solar irradiance variations in near UV.

The Sun emits radiation/light in nearly all wavelengths along with various energetic particles and magnetic field. The atmosphere of the Earth as well as its magnetic field acts as a protective shield and blocks a number of harmful wavelength radiations including particles and fields. As various radiations don’t reach the surface of the Earth, the instruments from the Earth will not be able to detect such radiation and solar studies based on these radiations could not be carried out. However, such studies can be carried out by making observations from outside the Earth atmosphere i.e., from space. Similarly, to understand how the solar wind particles and magnetic field from the Sun travel through the interplanetary space, measurements are to be performed from a point which is far away from the influence of the Earth’s magnetic field.

Sun is the nearest star and the largest object in the solar system. It is a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium gases.

Age of Sun: The estimated age of sun is about 4.5 billion years.

Distance between Earth and Sun: The distance to the Sun from the earth is about 150 million kilometres, and is the source of energy for the solar system. Without the solar energy the life on earth, cannot exist. The gravity of the sun holds all the objects of the solar system together.

Sun's parts: At the central region of the sun, known as ‘core’, the temperature can reach as high as 15 million degree Celsius. At this temperature, a process called nuclear fusion takes place in the core which powers the sun. The visible surface of the sun known as photosphere is relatively cool and has temperature of about 5,500 degrees Celsius

Aditya-L1 Mission LIVE: ISRO will be launching its solar mission Aditya-L1 tomorrow i.e. on 2 September. The live telecast can be watched on the Doordarshan channel or ISRO's YouTube channel. ISRO on 1 Spetember has also shared the link of the live telecast of the Aditya-L1 Mission. The launch of Aditya L1 is timed at 11:50 am (IST) tomorrow.

Aditya L1 mission LIVE: According to the ISRO's website, the spacecraft will be placed in a Low Earth Orbit. Subsequently, the orbit will be made more elliptical and later the spacecraft will be launched towards the Lagrange point (L1) by using onboard propulsion.

As the spacecraft travels towards L1, it will exit the Earths’ gravitational

Sphere of Influence (SOI). After exit from SOI, the cruise phase will

start and subsequently the spacecraft will be injected into a large halo

orbit around L1. The total travel time from launch to L1 would take about

four months for Aditya-L1

Aditya-L1 mission LIVE updates: ISRO will position the spacecraft within a "halo orbit" around Lagrange point 1 (L1) in the Sun-Earth system, located approximately 1.5 million km away from Earth.

The journey to the designated mission site is a staggering 1.5 million km from the Earth and will take about four months to cover

Aditya- L1 mission: Slated for the launch of 2 September, the Aditya L1 (Aditya is a name for the sun in the Hindi language) is the first Indian space mission to study the sun.

Gaganyaan: India's first crewed space mission ("Gagan" means sky in Hindi, "yaan" is craft) plans to launch a crew of three to an orbit of 400 km (250 miles) for a three-day mission before landing in Indian waters.

NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a low-Earth orbit observatory system jointly developed by NASA and ISRO. NISAR will map the entire planet once every 12 days, providing data for understanding changes in ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides

- It is the first space-based observatory-class solar mission to unlock the mysteries of the Sun

-The Aditya L1 mission will cover a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth, about four times farther than the Moon.

-The TheAditya L1 mission aims to understand the Sun's coronal heating and solar wind acceleration, coupling the dynamics of the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy and initiation of coronal mass ejection (CME), flares and near-earth space weather.

Aditya L1 Mission LIVE: The roles of seven payloads of Aditya L1 Mission are:

Corona/Imaging & Spectroscopy

Photosphere and Chromosphere Imaging- Narrow & Broadband

Soft X-ray spectrometer: Sun-as-a-star observation

Hard X-ray spectrometer: Sun-as-a-star observation

Solar wind/Particle Analyzer Protons & Heavier Ions with directions

Solar wind/Particle Analyzer Electrons & Heavier Ions with directions