On the Aditya-L1 mission and ISRO outreach

Source: This post on the Aditya-L1 mission and ISRO outreach has been created based on the article “A new high” published in “The Hindu” on 8^th January 2024.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 Science & Technology – Awareness in the fields of Space.

News: The article discusses the details of the Aditya-L1 mission and the need for public outreach by ISRO.

On January 6 the Aditya-L1 spacecraft was guided by ISRO into its orbit around the L1 Lagrange point, from where it will have a clear view of the sun for its expected lifetime of 5 years.

What is the L1 Lagrange point?

ISRO picked the L1 Lagrange point — 1.5 million km from the earth (one of five Lagrange points in the earth-sun system).

This is because at a Lagrange Point, the gravitational influences of the two bodies interact such that a smaller body here will not experience a net pull towards either. So, Aditya-L1 can stay at L1 while expending little fuel.

What are the instruments present on Aditya L1?

Aditya-L1 is an observatory-class solar mission that will study the sun with the following instruments:

1. VELC, a coronagraph to study the uppermost layer of the sun’s atmosphere;
2. SUIT, an ultraviolet imaging telescope;
3. SoLEXS and HEL1OS, to study solar flares and coronal mass ejections;
4. ASPEX and PAPA, to study the solar wind and plasma;
5. Set of digital magnetometers to measure properties of the magnetic field around the spacecraft.

For more on the Aditya L1 Mission, read here and here.

What more should be done by ISRO?

Expansion of public outreach efforts: This can be done by hosting open days focused on specific missions and communicating on new results at regular intervals.

Question for practice:

What are the various instruments present on the Aditya L1 mission for solar exploration? What is the significance of the mission.