Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch Aditya-1 satellite for the Sun in next three years. “We realised that we can put the satellite in an orbit from where it can see the Sun continuously, hence increasing the observation time,” said Isro chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar.

ISRO planned to put the 200-kg satellite into an 800 km orbit to coincide with the solar maxima, a period of intense activity on the Sun which occurs once in 11 years. The first ever satellite for the Sun from India was supposed to be launched way back in 2012-13, but the plan was postponed to 2017-20. ISRO has also updated the plan of the launch to put the satellite in an orbit which would allow for continuous observation of the Sun. The 200-kg satellite will be put in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun system. This will avoid eclipses, so that the observation time will be lengthier.

The objective of Aditya mission is to find out why solar flares and solar winds disturb the communication network and electronics on the earth. ISRO will be using the data from the satellite to protect its satellites from being damaged by hot winds and flares ejected out of the corona.

ISRO has been on the mission to conquer the planets and the stars in our galaxy. ISRO grabbed everyone's attention after the success of its Mars Orbiter mission and is already in talks with ISS authorities for participating in the International Space Station program.

By Premji