Sun Mission : ISRO assesses space situation around L1 to ensure safety of Aditya-L1 spacecraft

Chennai, Sep 27 : With Aditya-L1 spacecraft, India’s first solar exploratory mission,

continuing its journey towards the Sun-Earth Lagrange’s Point 1 (L1), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday assessed the space situation around L1 to ensure safety of the spacecraft and avoid any possibility of close approaches with other neighbouring spacecrafts, with the support from NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

Aditya-L1, India’s first mission dedicated to study the Sun, was launched from the spaceport of Sriharikota on September two and it embarked on its journey to L1 point on September 18 after completing its 16-day stay in earth orbit.

“ISRO’s Aditya-L1 mission, launched on September 2, 2023, is India’s first mission dedicated to studying the Sun, specifically the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona of Sun. The spacecraft commenced its journey to its final destination, the Sun-Earth Lagrange’s Point 1 (L1), on September 18, 2023”, ISRO said.

Lagrange points, also known as libration points, are unique locations in space where the gravitational force of two massive bodies (like Sun and Earth) precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object (like spacecraft) to move with them.

This makes Lagrange points an excellent location for spacecrafts as orbit corrections and hence fuel requirements, needed to maintain the desired orbit, are kept at a minimum.

For any combination of two orbital bodies (like Sun-Earth and Earth-Moon systems), there are five Lagrange points (L1 to L5), all in the orbital plane of the two large bodies. The three points – L1, L2, and L3 are dynamically unstable and lie on the line through the centres of the two large bodies, while the remaining two points – L4 and L5 are stable points and each acts as the third vertex of an equilateral triangle formed with the centres of the two large bodies.