Five days after its Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module scripted history by landing successfully near the lunar south pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday released photographs taken by the Moon rover and announced that its first solar mission, Aditya-L1, to study the Sun will be launched from the Sriharikota spaceport at 11.50 am on September 2. Putting out photographs of a crater and the imprint of the rover’s wheels on the lunar surface, ISRO said, “On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-metre diameter crater positioned 3 metres ahead of its location. The Rover was commanded to retrace the path. It’s now safely heading on a new path.” The rover has left tracks behind on the lunar surface as captured by its navigation camera. One of the reasons for choosing a landing spot close to the Moon south pole is the presence of craters that usually remain in shadow completely, increasing the likelihood of frozen water presence that will be key to future space missions. The space agency also announced the liftoff Saturday of Aditya L1. It is being prepared for its travel 1.5 million km away from Earth — only 1% of the distance to the Sun — to the Lagrange 1 point or L1 point which provides an unobstructed view of the Sun even during a solar eclipse. This distance to the L1 point is about four times what was covered by Chandrayaan missions. Just like Chandrayaan-3, the Aditya spacecraft will be placed in an elliptical orbit around the Earth, a series of manoeuvres will raise the orbit as well as the velocity of the spacecraft, till the slingshot towards the Sun. Chandrayaan-3 Mission: On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-meter diameter crater positioned 3 meters ahead of its location. The Rover was commanded to retrace the path. It's now safely heading on a new path.#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/QfOmqDYvSF — ISRO (@isro) August 28, 2023 The distance to the L1 point will be covered by the spacecraft in four months. It will then be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 point to allow the payloads to start making observations. The spacecraft will carry seven scientific payloads to study the upper layers of the solar atmosphere called chromosphere and corona, particles and plasma coming from the Sun, the magnetic field of the Sun, and the drivers of space weather. This radiation, heat, flow of particles, and magnetic fields constantly influence the Earth. Studying this can also shed light on the space weather of other planets. Another important science objective of the mission is to find clues to the mystery of coronal heating. One of the long standing mysteries of the Sun is why its atmospheric layer called the corona is a million degrees hot even though the surface is just over 5,500 degrees Celsius. While Aditya L1 is the first mission by the space agency to study the Sun, it is the second space-based observatory being launched by it — the AstroSat for astronomy research was launched in 2015.
