09/03/2023 6:05 pm (current 09/03/2023 6:06 pm)
India’s solar mission has begun. ©Photo by R. Satish BABU / AFP
An Indian satellite was launched on its mission to the Sun from the Satish Dhawan spaceport on the coast of Andhra Pradesh state on Saturday. Meanwhile, India’s lunar rover has been temporarily placed on standby.
“The satellite is intact and functioning properly,” Indian space agency Isro wrote on Sunday on Platform X, formerly Twitter.
India’s satellite is expected to reach the Sun in about 4 months
The solar mission probe will travel for about four months (125 days) until it reaches an orbit around the Sun about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, an Indian space agency spokesperson said before launch. The first maneuver has already been carried out successfully, it was said on Sunday. Roughly speaking, the probe will orbit the Earth several times in the coming days to gain speed. It should then head to a position between the Earth and the Sun. The next maneuver is scheduled for September 5th.
The Aditya-L1 mission is named after the Sanskrit word for the sun god Aditya. If successful, you should have an uninterrupted view of the sun, meaning no darkness. The outermost layers of the sun must be analyzed. The mission is expected to last just over five years. The data on solar phenomena that India intends to collect is intended to help better understand the climate on Earth and other planets. They are also intended to help better protect communications and weather satellites around Earth, Isro said.
Lunar rover is awaiting new orders
At 1,475 kg, Aditya-L1 is lighter than India’s recently launched lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3. On August 23, India became the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon.
“The rover has completed its tasks,” Isro wrote Saturday in X. The data collected would be transmitted to Earth via the lander. The rover’s battery is fully charged. The solar panel is aligned to receive the light of the next sunrise – scheduled for September 22, 2023. “We look forward to a successful awakening for another series of orders!” Isro wrote. “Otherwise, he will remain there forever as India’s ambassador to the Moon.”
Previously, only the Soviet Union, the US and China managed to make a soft landing on the Moon. With the unmanned mission, India aims to explore the little-studied south side of the Moon, focusing, among other things, on frozen water that exists there. This ice could also be useful in future manned lunar missions. “Chandrayaan” means “lunar vehicle” in Sanskrit.
Russian mission to the Moon failed
Although the landing of “Chandrayaan-3” was successful, the first Russian lunar mission in about half a century had failed a few days earlier: according to Russian information, the space probe “Luna-25” crashed on the moon. Not only government space agencies but also private companies are now trying to land on the Moon.
India’s space program began in the 1960s. In the early decades, the focus was mainly on getting satellites into space cheaply. India now has more ambitious goals.