India's Aditya-L1 Achieves Halo Orbit Around Sun-Earth Lagrange Point: ISRO
It was termed a 'landmark event' in the mission designed for studying the Sun, as India's solar observatory, Aditya-L1, accomplished the first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.
Launched into LEO on September 2 last year by the PSLV-XL variant rocket, Aditya-L1 was inserted into its intended halo orbit on January 6 this year. The L1 point is a special location about 1.5 million km from Earth, where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth cancel out each other, enabling the spacecraft to remain at the same position about the two celestial bodies continuously.
"Aditya-L1 has completed one full orbit around L1 in 178 days after waging a continuous battle against several perturbing forces that might have made its trajectory unstable'', said ISRO officials. Three station-keeping manoeuvres have been carried out on February 22, June 7, and most recently on July 2 to keep the spacecraft within its targetted orbit. These are basically conducted for making fine adjustments in the spacecraft's orbit and keeping it on the right path.
"This journey of Aditya L1 around Sun-Earth L1 involves modeling complex dynamics. Knowledge of various perturbing forces on the spacecraft was quite vital in predicting the trajectory precisely to plan orbit maneuvers with a defined accuracy", ISRO said.
The third station-keeping maneuver not only ascertained the stable position of the spacecraft but also proved the mettle of the advanced flight dynamics software developed by ISRO's U.R. Rao Satellite Centre exclusively for the Aditya-L1 mission.
The seven payloads onboard Aditya-L1 will configure the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere, and corona. Electromagnetic, particle, and magnetic field detectors will obtain full-scale coverage of solar phenomena.
It is one of the most important first steps toward space-based solar observations in the history of ISRO. The data supplied from this will add immense value to understanding the Sun's effect on space weather and climatic effects on Earth.
The formulation of Aditya-L1's first halo orbit underlines an emergent India in space science and technology. This sets ISRO as a prime player in international solar research.
