**India Plans to Launch Its First Space Observatory to Study the Sun**
*Written by: BBC Tamil*
*Updated: September 1, 2023, 02:58 GMT*
India, after successfully landing a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, is now preparing to explore the sun. The country aims to launch its first space observatory, named Aditya-L1, to observe the sun and study space weather features such as the solar wind.
While NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) already have orbiters to study the sun, India’s plan for Aditya-L1 brings some unique features. The spacecraft, set to be launched on Saturday, September 2nd, will take off from India’s main space station at Sriharikota, located 100km North of Chennai.
Aditya-L1’s target is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, which is about four times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. This journey will take about four months for the spacecraft to reach its destination. The spacecraft will not physically reach the Sun, but it will be positioned at the Lagrange point L1, where the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Earth are balanced, minimizing the need for fuel consumption.
The Aditya-L1 mission will carry a total of seven instruments to monitor the Sun’s outer layers, known as the photosphere and chromosphere, using electromagnetic and particle field detectors. The spacecraft will provide an unobstructed view of the Sun, helping scientists observe solar activity and its impact on space weather. It will also study the radiation intercepted by our atmosphere, which cannot be studied from Earth.
While the cost of the Aditya-L1 mission is yet to be revealed, the Government of India approved the project in 2019 with an estimated cost of around Rs 380 crore. The spacecraft is designed to stay in space for more than five years.
ISRO’s achievements in space exploration have been commendable, considering its relatively small budget. Last week, with the successful landing of the unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on the moon, India became the fourth country, after the US, Russia, and China, to achieve this feat.
In 2014, India became the first Asian country to send a spacecraft into Mars orbit, and it now plans to launch a mission to send humans into Earth orbit by next year.
The Aditya-L1 mission holds great promise in advancing our understanding of the sun and its impact on space weather. India’s efforts to explore space and push scientific boundaries continue to impress the world.