Can this be launched on PSLV or is it only achievable by the GSLV?
The launch of LISA Pathfinder is planned for 2014. The spacecraft will be launched by a VEGA rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, and will be placed into a slightly elliptical parking orbit. From there, it will use its own propulsion module to reach its final operational orbit, a 500 000 by 800 000 km halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, at 1.5 million km from Earth. LISA Pathfinder’s initial operational phase will last 12 months and the mission could be extended to one year.
"The mission would be around the Earth. A few equipment are being planned for that. We hope for the launch between 2017 and 2020," ISRO chairman said.
Quote"The mission would be around the Earth. A few equipment are being planned for that. We hope for the launch between 2017 and 2020," ISRO chairman said.http://www.deccanherald.com/content/388995/isros-mission-probe-sun-2020.html
So it won't be L1 then?
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch Aditya in 2017, its first satellite aimed at studying the sun. Interacting with students of a private school at Balussery in Calicut, ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan said the satellite will be placed 1.5 million km away from the earth, at the Langrangian point of the Sun-Earth system.
The sun shines on India's Aditya After a seven year long wait, Aditya, India’s first dedicated scientific mission to study the sun is likely to get a go-ahead from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) this week.... The project costs approximately Rs 400 crores and is a joint venture between ISRO and physicists from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru; Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune; Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and other institutes.... Though the project was conceptualised in 2008 itself, it has since morphed and grown and is now awaiting clearance with the government. It now aims to put a heavy satellite into what is called a halo orbit around the L1 point between the Sun and the Earth.... “The data from Aditya mission will be immensely helpful in discriminating between different models for the origin of solar storms and also for constraining how the storms evolve and what path they take through the interplanetary space from the Sun to the Earth. The forecasting models we are building will therefore be complemented by the Aditya observations.”... At the moment, there are models and calculations made by NASA which Indian scientists use to maintain their satellites. Now, there is a possibility of Indians developing their own space weather prediction models.
Aditya - L1 First Indian mission to study the SunThe Aditya-1 mission was conceived as a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and was planned to launch in a 800 km low earth orbit. A Satellite placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses. Therefore, the Aditya-1 mission has now been revised to “Aditya-L1 mission” and will be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth. The satellite carries additional six payloads with enhanced science scope and objectives.The project is approved and the satellite will be launched during 2019 – 2020 timeframe by PSLV-XL from Sriharikota.Aditya-1 was meant to observe only the solar corona. The outer layers of the Sun, extending to thousands of km above the disc (photosphere) is termed as the corona. It has a temperature of more than a million degree Kelvin which is much higher than the solar disc temperature of around 6000K. How the corona gets heated to such high temperatures is still an unanswered question in solar physics. Aditya-L1 with additional experiments can now provide observations of Sun's Photosphere (soft and hard X-ray), Chromosphere (UV) and corona (Visible and NIR). In addition, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun and reaching the L1 orbit, and the magnetometer payload will measure the variation in magnetic field strength at the halo orbit around L1. These payloads have to be placed outside the interference from the Earth’s magnetic field and could not have been useful in the low earth orbit.The main payload continues to be the coronagraph with improved capabilities. The main optics for this experiment remains the same. The complete list of payloads, their science objective and lead institute for developing the payload is provided below:Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC): To study the diagnostic parameters of solar corona and dynamics and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (3 visible and 1 Infra-Red channels); magnetic field measurement of solar corona down to tens of Gauss – Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA)Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT): To image the spatially resolved Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultraviolet (200-400 nm) and measure solar irradiance variations - Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA) Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX): To study the variation of solar wind properties as well as its distribution and spectral characteristics – Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA): To understand the composition of solar wind and its energy distribution – Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), VSSC Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS): To monitor the X-ray flares for studying the heating mechanism of the solar corona – ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS): To observe the dynamic events in the solar corona and provide an estimate of the energy used to accelerate the particles during the eruptive events - ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)and Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO), PRLMagnetometer: To measure the magnitude and nature of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field – Laboratory for Electro-optic Systems (LEOS) and ISAC.With the inclusion of multiple payloads, this project also provides an opportunity to solar scientists from multiple institutions within the country to participate in space based instrumentation and observations. Thus the enhanced Aditya-L1 project will enable a comprehensive understanding of the dynamical processes of the sun and address some of the outstanding problems in solar physics.
The launch year in the title needs to be updated to 2019 and the name changed to Aditya L1.
According to ADCOS Chairman, and former ISRO chief and cosmic ray scientist U.R. Rao, a second spacecraft can be sent to Point L5, about 1.3 million km away and at a 30-degree angle to L1, for a fuller picture of the sun. It could follow L1 a few months or a year apart, he told The Hindu.
Dr. Rao said early discussions have taken place on a possible L5 mission. ISRO, he said, could use the qualification model of the spacecraft which goes through the same tests and is as good as the final flight model.“Activities related to the Aditya-L1 mission have started,” confirmed ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar. “Two [spacecraft to sun] together will become unique. Having another one at L5 will give a significant advantage in measurements. We have to still take it up and it must go through all the regular approval processes through the Union Cabinet and budgeting.”
Aditya-L1 may get a sibling at L5 http://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu/20160209/281694023823141/TextViewQuoteAccording to ADCOS Chairman, and former ISRO chief and cosmic ray scientist U.R. Rao, a second spacecraft can be sent to Point L5, about 1.3 million km away and at a 30-degree angle to L1, for a fuller picture of the sun. It could follow L1 a few months or a year apart, he told The Hindu.QuoteDr. Rao said early discussions have taken place on a possible L5 mission. ISRO, he said, could use the qualification model of the spacecraft which goes through the same tests and is as good as the final flight model.“Activities related to the Aditya-L1 mission have started,” confirmed ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar. “Two [spacecraft to sun] together will become unique. Having another one at L5 will give a significant advantage in measurements. We have to still take it up and it must go through all the regular approval processes through the Union Cabinet and budgeting.”
Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the main payload for the mission is being built at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. The advisory committee for space sciences is keeping tab of the projects.
Jagdev Singh, Principal Investigator, VELC mission, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru said, the VELC is undergoing various stages of testing.“We have finished the designing part. The engineering and flight models will be ready in two years. The Sun’s corona experiment can be launched in three year’s time.”
“Though the project was being discussed from 2006 the works started only in 2010. We are confident of launching it in 2019,” he said. “The experiment will be placed in the Lagrangian point (L1). It is about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth where the gravitational force due to the Earth and the Sun works in the opposite direction and the payload put at that point can see the Sun all the time without any eclipse,” he added.
India is all set for the take-off of its maiden mission to the Sun by the year 2019. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman AS Kiran Kumar on Monday, during an interview at the FICCI at 90 event said, “Aditya-L1, India’s maiden mission to the Sun, will be launched in 2019”.
Sometime in 2019 or 2020 India will send ISRO's solar mission Aditya-L1 to a vantage point in space, known as the L1 Lagrange point, to do imaging and study of the sun. This launch will happen in the early part of the next solar cycle - an occurrence in which sunspots form on the face of the sun, growing in size and number and eventually diminishing, all over a period of eleven years. It will be a mission of many firsts.
The so-called L1 point is 1.5 million kilometres away. Here, due to the delicate balance of gravitational forces, the satellite will require very little energy to maintain its orbit. Also it will not be eclipsed from the sun. The 1,500-kg class satellite will be programmed to orbit this point and image the sun's magnetic field from space for the very first time in the world. Scientists hope to capture the close-ups of the sun from here, uninterrupted by eclipses for years.
Few other space agencies have successfully placed their satellites at this location. Among the few, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a NASA-ESA collaboration involving America and Europe, and NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) are at L1 exclusively to study the sun and space weather, respectively. Aditya-L1 is expected to be the very first to study from space two months from the time of launch, the magnetic field of the sun's corona. The corona is the outer layer that we see during total solar eclipses. It will be the first 100% Indian mission which will not only negotiate a challenging orbit, but will also benefit the global scientific community in understanding the sun.
Earlier, the NASA-ESA mission SOHO was launched in 1995, and while it made many discoveries, its coronagraph, meant to image the sun, broke down shortly after the mission commenced. Hence there is currently no satellite imaging the sun from space. Aditya-L1 will not only fill this gap it will also literally, look deeper into the sun than SOHO. "The nominal mission lifetime is expected to be five years, though it is expected to go on for much longer, perhaps even ten," says Dipankar Banerjee from Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP), Bengaluru, which is collaborating with ISRO on this project.
The mission will carry seven payloads, consisting of a coronagraph, equipment that will image the sun using ultraviolet filters, X-ray spectrometers, and particle samplers all being made within the country. The largest payload, or instrument, aboard the satellite, will be the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VLEC). This can view the sun more closely than has been done before even by SOHO.
Quote from: Gurbir on 10/29/2019 12:08 amDuring IAC2019 in Washington DC I spoke with S Somanath (Director of VSSC) and R Umamaheswaran (Scientific Secretary) from ISRO on Thursday 24th October....The 50 min audio interview is available here https://astrotalkuk.org/?p=5703<snip>- Aditya-L1 slips to second half 2020 (after 29:00 in the podcast). Note there is a typo in the transcript, which says 2022.<snip>
During IAC2019 in Washington DC I spoke with S Somanath (Director of VSSC) and R Umamaheswaran (Scientific Secretary) from ISRO on Thursday 24th October....The 50 min audio interview is available here https://astrotalkuk.org/?p=5703
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/panorama/funding-research-in-astro-is-investing-in-technology-794295.htmlQuoteQ. You had a project to launch the Aditya-I, a space observation platform, with Isro. What is the status of this project?A. Aditya-I will be launched by the end of next year or sometime in 2021. We are starting the integration of the payload within the frame of the satellite. It is not a joke to integrate this system because Aditya is going to study the corona of the sun. This necessitated upgrading our clean-room facilities in terra firma to test the efficacy of the system. We now have a 10-particle-per-unit cleanroom at IIA’s CREST facility in Hoskote where the integration and testing are being carried out.
Q. You had a project to launch the Aditya-I, a space observation platform, with Isro. What is the status of this project?A. Aditya-I will be launched by the end of next year or sometime in 2021. We are starting the integration of the payload within the frame of the satellite. It is not a joke to integrate this system because Aditya is going to study the corona of the sun. This necessitated upgrading our clean-room facilities in terra firma to test the efficacy of the system. We now have a 10-particle-per-unit cleanroom at IIA’s CREST facility in Hoskote where the integration and testing are being carried out.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indias-first-solar-mission-likely-to-launch-next-year-isro-101631860455183.html [dated September 17]QuoteTalking about the purely scientific missions at a conference this week, director of human spaceflight centre, Dr Unnikrishnan Nair, said, "The solar mission Aditya L1 will be launched in the third quarter of next year (2022) and will provide more insights into the origin of the universe and many other unknowns."
Talking about the purely scientific missions at a conference this week, director of human spaceflight centre, Dr Unnikrishnan Nair, said, "The solar mission Aditya L1 will be launched in the third quarter of next year (2022) and will provide more insights into the origin of the universe and many other unknowns."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/gaganyaan-to-be-launched-in-2023-indias-first-space-station-by-2030-jitendra-singh/articleshow/88231964.cms'Time Line updateL1 Aditya and Chandrayaan-3 2022-2023Space Station in 2030sVenus mission 2023
Quote from: ISRO tweetAlso ISRO is looking to launch Aditya-L1 in Sept-Oct 2022!
Also ISRO is looking to launch Aditya-L1 in Sept-Oct 2022!
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is launching two pioneering scientific spacecraft this year, one to study the Sun, and one to land on the Moon – the nation’s first soft landing on another celestial body.ESA’s global deep-space communication antennas will provide essential support to both missions every step of the way, tracking the spacecraft, pinpointing their locations at crucial stages, transmitting commands and receiving ‘telemetry’ and valuable science data.
And, the solar mission — Aditya-L1 — is expected to make the September-October window, missing which would push the mission to the next year. While the team is confident of making the window, the headquarters is yet to take a final call on the launch dates. “In all likelihood, it could happen this year,” one source said.
Aditya-L1: Aryabhatta Institute to organize workshop for students to analyse solar dataTo be launched later this year, Aditya-L1 is India's maiden space mission to the Sun wherein the space-based observatory will continuously image the star and observe coronal mass ejections, solar winds and other activities.
The Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (Aries) will host a ten-day workshop to train students in using and analysing solar data. Young astronomy aspirants keen on studying the sun can apply for the Aditya-L1 Science Support Cell (AL1SSC1) 2022 workshop to be held from June 27 to July 6 at the Nainital-based institute.
The workshop will have hands-on training and data analysis along with lectures on relevant topics. Some of the key areas to be covered during the workshop include spectroscopic observations, Aditya-L1 mission and objectives, imaging analysis, polarimetric observations and in-situ observations of the solar atmosphere, time series analysis, numerical simulations, remote sensing and use of advanced computational tools like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Participants can also get a chance to visit the institute’s 15 cm H-alpha telescope to record real-time solar observations.
Aditya-L1 Support Cell (AL1SC), a joint effort of ISRO and ARIES, is set up at ARIES. This center will jointly work to maximize utilization of science data from upcoming Aditya-L1 space mission.
SoLEXS: Solar Low Energy X-ray SpectrometerSoLEXS on Aditya-L1 is a soft X-ray spectrometer (1 keV to 30keV) for studying solar flares. The main science goals of SoLEXS are: (i) Flare and coronal abundance studies as a standalone spectrometer and (ii) Dynamical events studies along with other payloads. In addition to the flare & coronal abundance studies, the heating mechanism of these flares, pre-flare activities indicating the flare initiation mechanisms and the coronal abundances and hence the FIP Effects will also be studied.Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD), which have high count rate capabilities are used. The spectroscopic signal processing modules like shaper, baseline restorer, peak detector, pile- up rejecter etc. are developed in digital domain, entirely into FPGA module. Key instrument specifications are; energy range 1-30 keV, Spectral resolution: < 250 eV @ 5.9 keV keV, Flare coverage: A to X-class. The Shutter Mechanism is developed as per SoLEXS payload requirement for aperture cover during ground/launch operations and deploy in orbit for payload operations.
FGM: Fluxgate MagnetometerIn Aditya–L1 mission, a pair of Flux Gate Magnetometers will be flown. The FGM instrument is a dual range 3-axis sets of magnetic sensors be mounted on a 6m boom (one at the tip and other at the mid-way of the boom). The design and development of the magnetic sensors, deployable 6m Magnetic Boom including the boom Testing at the Magnetic Test facility are the challenging aspects accomplished during the period.
VELC: Visible Emission Line CoronagraphVisible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), the prime payload on-board Aditya-L1 mission is a collaborative project between Indian Institute of Astrophysics [IIA], Bengaluru and URSC. The Centre contributed in the thermal design and analysis of the VELC payload, optical design of the mirror and lens assemblies, development of Multiple operation Entry Aperture Cover Mechanism, Deployable Exit Cover Mechanism as well as Payload Drive electronics during the period.
HEl1OS: High Energy l1 Orbiting X-ray SpectrometerHEL1OS on Aditya-L1 is a hard X-ray spectrometer (10 keV to 150 keV) to observe Sun as a star continuously from L1 point. The main science goals of HEL1OS are to study particle acceleration processes during flares, via emission of hard X-rays (HXR) during the impulsive phase of solar flare. It is an instrument supporting multi-wavelength observations of eruptive solar phenomena.The instrument consists of two types of detectors, Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe), to cover the required spectral range (10 keV – 150 keV).
SUIT: Solar Ultraviolet Imaging TelescopeSUIT will observe the Sun in the 200-400 nm spectral range with 11 channels (3 Broadband & 8 Narrowband filters). SUIT is a collaborative project between Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics [IUCAA], Pune and URSC along with LEOS and IISU. A 4K x 4K CCD detector is used for capturing the solar disc image.
Director, SDSC SHAR, press meet [15 Aug 2022]:[YouTube link]<snip>Missions planned for next year:PSLV C55 - Commercial launchPSLV C56 - Aditya-L1GSLV Mk3 - OneWebGLSV Mk3 - Chandrayaan 3 (based on readiness)
Giving an update on the launch of Aditya L1 mission, Somanath S, Chairman ISRO said, “The spacecraft is currently being integrated. A critical payload is undergoing testing and integration. Full spacecraft is yet to be assembled and tested. The present schedule for launch is the beginning of 2023.”
Sullurpet: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the American Space Research Organization (NASA) are preparing to jointly launch the Aditya L1 satellite before the end of January 2023 to study the Sun.
ISRO has intensified its arrangements to launch Aditya L1 satellite by PSLV-C56 rocket from Sriharikota in January 2023. SHAR Director Armugam Rajarajan revealed this to the media.
This satellite is being made at U.R. Rao Space Center in Bangalore.
The satellite weighs 1,475 kg. Payloads weigh 244 kg and liquid fuel weighs 1,231 kg. More liquid fuel is used to propel it towards the Sun. After the initial launch of the satellite into Geo Transfer Orbit, it takes 177 days to reach the Lagrangian Point-1 (L-1) which is 15 lakh km [1.5M km] from Earth. From there, it is expected to be able to continuously investigate the changes on the Sun without any obstacles. Six payloads are being installed in the satellite.
