‘Aditya-L1 will provide data on visible…’: Prof Jagdev Singh on India’s Solar mission

Aditya-L1 Launch Today: Professor Jagdev Singh from Bengaluru's Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) on Friday said that for the first time, Aditya-L1 will provide data on the visible emission line and solar corona. India's maiden solar mission is all set to launch today, September 2, Saturday. 

The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph payload, the main payload that will be carried onboard the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, was developed as a result of Singh's initial efforts, according to a report published by Hindustan Times. 

In 2012, it was decided that India's first dedicated mission to study the Sun would be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1 (Lagrange Point-1) which is around 1.5 million km from the Earth, Jagdev Singh told HT  in an exclusive interview. 

According to Singh, the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will be able to study various aspects of the Sun including temperature plasma, and prediction of the exact time and speed of the coronal mass ejection (CME) through continuous observations. 

Also Read: LIVE Updates on Aditya-L1 mission launch

Speaking to HT, Singh informed that he started studying the outer atmosphere of the Sun when Indian astronomer MK Vainu Bappu encouraged him to conduct experiments on it in 1980. 

Between 1980 and 2010, Jagdev Singh conducted around 10 such experiments after which he realized that one can get only 5-7 minutes of observations during a solar eclipse, hence, not enough for long-term studies, the professor told HT. 

After these observations, Singh had a conversation with many people in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and other agencies to plan a mission to study the different aspects of the Sun for a longer period, he said. 

“Then in 2009, talks around a possible mission on the Sun started. In 2012, a concrete plan was developed on the same,” Jagdev Singh told HT. 

He said that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft will take around 127 days to reach the Sun and the data is expected to start coming from next February or March. Singh also expressed confidence in the successful launch of the Aditya-L1 mission. 

“We are 100% confident on this mission because our teams have tested the equipment multiple times. We are not expecting any issues,” he told HT. 

Aditya-L1 is India's first mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around a fixed point of the Sun-Earth system. The satellite will collect information about the different phenomena on the Sun's surface that can be further utilized in research.

After the scheduled launch of the ISRO spacecraft, it will stay on Earth-bound orbits for 16 days. During the period it will undergo 5 maneuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey. 

Subsequently, Aditya-L1 undergoes a Trans-Lagrangian1 insertion maneuver, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange point. Upon arrival at the L1 point, another maneuver binds Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun.