Aditya-L1, Bharat’s maiden solar mission,
will reach its target Lagrangian point (L1) which is situated 1.5 million km
from the Earth, on January 6, informed Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO
chairman S Somanath.
The solar mission, Indian space-based
observatory to research the Sun from a halo orbit L1, was launched by the ISRO
on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SDSC at Sriharikota.
“Aditya will go into the L1 point on
January 6. That is what is expected. Precise time will be announced at appropriate
time,” said Somanath on the sidelines of the Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan held by
Vijnana Bharati, an NGO working to popularise science.
The ISRO chairman said, “When it enters the
L1 point, we have to fire the engine once again so that it does not go further.
The spacecraft will go to that point, and once it reaches that point, it will
rotate around it and will be trapped at L1.”
After Aditya-L1 reaches its targeted
destination, it will help calculate multiple events happening on the Sun for
the next five years.
Somnath said, “Once it is successfully
placed on L1 point, it will be there for the next five years, collecting all
the data which are very significant not for Bharat alone but for the entire
world. The data will be very useful to understand the dynamics of the Sun and
how it affects our life.”
How Bharat is going to become a
technologically powerful country is very noteworthy, he said while addressing
the gathering.
ISRO has made a strategy to set up an
Indian space station, called ‘Bharatiya Space Station’ during the ‘Amrit Kaal’
as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s instructions, shared Somanath.
“In the space sector, we are witnessing an
emergence of new and fresh actors… We are going to back, encourage and construct
the economy around the new generation,” he said and adding further Bharat cannot
become a leader in everything, but it should focus on the sectors where it can.
NE Watch Desk
