India's Aditya-L1 spacecraft begins journey to solar observation station
Spacecraft to reach its destination in 110 days, study the sun and interplanetary space environment
On Tuesday, India's Aditya-L1 spacecraft left the orbit of the Earth and began traveling across interplanetary space in the direction of its solar observation station, which is 1.5 million kilometers away from the planet.
According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the spacecraft, which is equipped with seven scientific equipment for studying the sun and the interplanetary space environment, is anticipated to arrive at its Lagrangean point 1 target in roughly 110 days.
The trans-Lagrangean point 1 insertion maneuver is successfully completed... Following the change from orbit to trajectory at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Isro announced that the spacecraft would be launched into an orbit around L1 by (another) maneuver after roughly 110 days.
Aditya-L1 contains three sensors to measure the effects of solar activity near the spacecraft and four instruments to observe the sun. The instruments are made to shed light on solar behavior and aid in the production of space weather alerts brought on by solar activity.
Isro said on Monday that a payload on Aditya-L1 carrying an experiment known as the Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) had started to gather data that would aid scientists in measuring and analyzing the behavior of electrons and charged atoms in space.
On September 10, when Aditya-L1 was more than 50,000 kilometers from the Earth, STEPS was turned on. According to Isro, "each STEPS unit is operating within normal parameters." The STEPS measurements will continue throughout the Aditya-L1 mission's cruise phase as it approaches the L1 point and after the spacecraft is in its orbit. Isro stated that data from L1 is anticipated to shed light on the creation and behavior of the solar wind as well as other space weather phenomena.
Only the European Space Agency and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration have launched spacecraft into the L1 zone thus far; the ESA in 1995 and NASA in 1994.
Five of the seven scientific instruments on Aditya-L1 were created by Isro centers in Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, and Bangalore, while two were created by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune.
