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.