ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 missions propel India's soaring success in space science

ISRO’s space adventure has become phenomenal in recent years. The back-to-back space missions from the moon to the sun tell the story of India’s meteoric rise in space science. The depth of its space technology and the critical and cutting-edge research ISRO has so challengingly taken up explains the mood of aspirational India. The sky does not seem to be a limit anymore. The success of the Chandrayaan-3 and its grand landing on the lunar south pole have increased the level of confidence of our scientists to an exceptional height. The journey has just started and there are many more scientific breakthroughs which are currently at the gestational stage. For a nation in the global south to have achieved this extraordinary feat is inarguably enviable. The Aditya L1’s successful launch on 2 September 2023 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota for a solar mission is a milestone and a historic moment for every Indian in the country and across the globe. The word ‘Aditya’ in Sanskrit means ‘Sun’. L1 as a suffix to this phrase formation refers to an interstitial location where the gravitational force of both the earth and the sun find equilibrium. It is called Lagrange. NASA defines it as a position in space where the gravitational pull of two celestial bodies remains equal. The word ‘Lagrange’ is the name of a famous French-Italian mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange whose exceptional research contribution in the field of celestial mechanics has helped enormously in upgrading the motion-related scientific understanding of the planets and moon. The Aditya L1 is going to be stationed in liminal space where the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Sun are in a state of equilibrium. This space is locationally most apt to be positioned to read the sun and its atmosphere. The space object located here acquires a relatively good deal of stability to observe solar behaviour. The meeting point between the two gravitational forces generates a space of relative stability which helps the satellite to conduct its observation. According to ISRO, the Aditya L1 is going to carry out a very comprehensive study of the sun. The seven indigenously built payloads it carries will help the mission in a significant way to procure critical data about the sun. The Aditya L1 orbits around the sun for 16 days to gain the necessary velocity to carry on with its journey. It takes almost 125 days to cover a distance of 1.5 million kilometres to reach the L1. It just constitutes 1 per cent of the entire distance between the Sun and the Earth. The purpose of this mission as ISRO highlights is to study solar radiation, ‘to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors’ and ‘to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities’. Out of the five Lagrange points the satellite is going to be stationed at the L1 point because it provides positional advantage to observe the solar scope, particles and plasma, gas pattern, and atmospheric and thermal dynamics. At L1 the spacecraft sets an observatory to map the sun to carry out the most cutting-edge research in space. For this maiden solar mission of ISRO, the companies and collaborators include UR Rao Satellite Centre and Larsen & Toubro (L&T). India has spent Rs 400 crore to achieve this scientific feat. This has no doubt enhanced India’s prestige globally. In the space race, India stands today as an impactful player. Its scientists have shown the world India’s greatness and strength. This is going to inspire the young Indians to unleash their potential for making India a Vishvaguru. India will soon become a hub of space-tech activity, space start-ups and explorations, and space engineering. From an economic point of view, these remarkable space missions will attract investments which will give the Indian economy a great deal of strength and flexibility. Jajati K Pattnaik is an Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Chandan K Panda is an Assistant Professor at Rajiv Gandhi University (A Central University), Itanagar. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.