Aditya-L1: Challenges along the way for India's first solar mission

Aditya-L1 mission will be exposed to high coronal heat which can interfere with the function of the instruments onboard.

India is minutes away from rolling out its solar mission, Aditya-L1, at 11:50 am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on September 2.

Aditya-L1 will be the country's first space-based mission to study the Sun. The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the Lagrange point 1 of the Sun-Earth system.

Aditya-L1's main objectives include studying the Sun’s corona, solar emissions, solar winds and solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and a round-the-clock imaging of the Sun.

Catch all the live action of Aditya-L1's launch here

It's not going to be an easy task for the spacecraft. Let's take a look at the challenges Aditya-L1 will face.

Huge distance between Sun and Earth: The L1 point where Aditya-L1 will be placed is about 1.5 million km from Earth. Safe placement of Aditya-L1 is a challenging task as we need precise orbital maneuvers to move Aditya-L1 from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to L1, as per a blog by ForumIAS.

Smooth operation of Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) engine: LAM engines are used for orbital adjustment maneuvers of satellites/spacecraft in orbit. The challenge is to restart LAM at the precise moment for ‘braking’ the vehicle as it closes in on its destination and nudging it into the desired halo orbit at L1. During ISRO's Mangalyaan mission in 2014, the critical maneuver i.e., ‘waking’ the LAM engine after an ‘extended hibernation’ was the mission’s most challenging moment.

Exposure to Sun's heat: Aditya-L1 mission will be exposed to high coronal heat which can interfere with the function of the instruments onboard.

Ensure functioning of moving components: Aditya-L1 has moving components like polished mirrors on the telescope and multiple operations of the front window of the telescope. Ensuring proper functioning of these moving payloads/components is a challenging task.

Also Read | Aditya L1 solar mission explained in 10 simple points