Aditya-L1 mission: ISRO spacecraft makes a big successful move on way to the Sun

 Aditya-L1 mission spacecraft is on its way to the Sun and already ISRO has put it through its paces. In latest move, ISRO has got the Aditya-L1 spacecraft to start collecting data successfully.

Aditya-L1 spacecraft was launched on September 2, 2023, with the objective of studying the Sun and the solar environment as well as the generation of CME, solar wind, coronal layer, solar storms and more.

The spacecraft carries seven payloads which will study the Sun through different angles. The spacecraft will be placed on the Earth-Sun system, at the Lagrange point 1 (L1) some 1.5 mn km from Earth.

ISRO has shared a post on X that said the Aditya-L1 STEPS instrument has started collecting scientific data, a major objective of the mission that will serve to expand space exploration by ISRO.

The post about Aditya-L1 mission said, “The sensors of the STEPS instrument have begun measuring supra-thermal and energetic ions and electrons at distances greater than 50,000 km from Earth.”

According to ISRO, the collected measurements will help scientists to study the behaviour of particles that surround Earth.

The Aditya-L1 STEPS instrument is called the Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer which is part of the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload.

According to an ANI report, the instrument has six sensors that enable it to collect data from different directions.

The STEPS instrument is capable of measuring supra-thermal and energetic ions, ranging from 20 keV/nucleon to 5 MeV/nucleon.

These data will enable scientists to analyze how such particles act near the Earth, especially when influenced by the our planet's magnetic field.

The STEPS instrument will collect these measurements throughout the cruise phase as the Aditya-L1 spacecraft exits the Earth’s magnetic field and heads towards the halo orbit. 

The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in collaboration with the Space Application Centre (SAC) developed  STEPS in Ahmedabad.