Solar mission: ISRO’s Aditya-L1 leaves earth’s orbit
The spacecraft has been put on a trajectory towards Lagrange Point 1 from where it will continuously study the sun.
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Tuesday said that its Aditya-L1 spacecraft successfully left the earth’s orbit and has been put on a trajectory towards Lagrange Point 1 from where it will continuously study the sun.
The space agency said that the spacecraft will travel in the trajectory for 110 days before being inserted into an orbit around Lagrange Point 1, which is about 1.5 million kilometers from the earth.
There are five Lagrange Points between any two celestial bodies and they act as a “parking lot”, allowing objects to stay put because of balancing gravitational forces. This reduces fuel consumption by the spacecraft.
“This is the fifth consecutive time ISRO has successfully transferred an object on a trajectory toward another celestial body or location in space,” the space agency said.
Aditya-L1 Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) September 18, 2023
Off to Sun-Earth L1 point!
The Trans-Lagrangean Point 1 Insertion (TL1I) maneuvre is performed successfully.
The spacecraft is now on a trajectory that will take it to the Sun-Earth L1 point. It will be injected into an orbit around L1 through a maneuver… pic.twitter.com/H7GoY0R44I
ISRO had launched its first mission to study the sun on September 2, days after the agency made history by becoming the first to land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon.
The major objectives of the mission include understanding the problem of coronal heating and studying solar winds that can cause disturbance on earth.
