India on Top of Universe: Aditya-L1’s sophisticated payload is an engineering marvel

With the impending launch of India’s inaugural solar mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO provided an update on the mission’s status. On August 30, ISRO announced the successful completion of the launch rehearsal and internal assessments of the rocket.

The Aditya-L1 spacecraft has been purposefully crafted to allow Indian astrophysicists to remotely examine the Sun, and everything that it entails. This includes some really critical areas such as coronal heating, coronal mass ejections, pre-flare and flare activities, along with their distinct characteristics.

Additionally, these investigations will enhance our understanding of space weather dynamics and the behaviour of particles and fields as they propagate through space.

India on Top of the Universe- Aditya-L1’s sophisticated payload is an engineering marvel
A diagram of the Aditya-L1 observatory, with its major payloads and how they are positioned. Image Credit: ISRO

To that effect, the Aditya-L1 solar observatory is carrying the following equipment as payload:

Visible Emission Line Coronagraph(VELC)
The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) payload is a remote sensing payload and will study the solar corona and dynamics of Coronal Mass Ejections. This is the main payload of the observatory and will be taking about 1,440 super high-resolution photos of the Sun every day, and relay everything back to ISRO’s ground station.

Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT)
The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope or SUIT payload will take images of the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultra-violet (UV) and also measure the solar irradiance variations in near UV. The SUIT is also a remote-sensing payload.

Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) and High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer(HEL1OS)
The two other remote-sensing payloads onboard the Aditya-L1 observatory will be the Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer or SoLEXS, and the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer(HEL1OS). Both of these payloads will work together, or in tandem and take multiple photos of the X-ray flares from the Sun over a wide energy range. That way, they will be able to see flares and reactions that would be normally invisible to humans.

Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment(ASPEX) and Plasma Analyser Package For Aditya (PAPA)
Both of these payloads are in-situ payloads, meaning they will be analysing the data that the observatory’s sensors collect on their own, without any intervention from the ground team. Usually, in-situ payloads or instruments have a very specific objective, and analyse data for very specific study.

Both the payloads will study solar wind and energetic ions, as well as their energy distribution. ASPEX will study protons and other heavier particles, whereas PAPA will study electrons and other particles.

Advanced Tri-axial High-Resolution Digital Magnetometers
These are an array of magnetometers that will take readings and analyse interplanetary magnetic fields around the Lagrange Point L1. Like ASPEX and PAPA, this one is also an in-situ payload.

The mission itself is set to be launched on September 2 at 11:50 AM from the Sriharikota spaceport. ISRO conveyed in a recent social media post that the launch preparations are steadily advancing, emphasizing that both the launch rehearsal and vehicle internal checks have been successfully concluded.



from Firstpost Tech Latest News https://ift.tt/AoNgFVY

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 origins: Should we pay more attention to the lab leak theory and formally investigate it?

Image
A year and a half into the pandemic, we still do not know exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, came from. The prevailing view so far has been that the virus “spilled over” from bats into humans. But there are increasing calls to investigate the possibility that it emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, where Covid first appeared at the end of 2019. So what do we know for sure, and what do we need still to find out? We know the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is close to that of bat coronaviruses . Several decades ago its “ancestor” was circulating in bat populations in southern Asia. But there are still many unanswered questions: we don’t know how the virus arrived in Wuhan, how its sequence evolved to allow human infection, and under what conditions it infected the first people who crossed its path. And for each of these stages, we don’t know whether there was a human contribution (direct or indirect). Zoonotic transmission pathways, in other words the pas
Read more

Menstrual cups are cheaper, more sustainable than pads and tampons for women

Image
Every year in America, women spend at least US$2.8 billion on sanitary pads and tampons that can take hundreds of years to decompose . Is there a more economical and environmentally friendly way? To find out, we asked Susan Powers , a professor of sustainable environmental systems at Clarkson University about her work comparing the environmental impact of tampons, sanitary pads and menstrual cups. What is a menstrual cup? A menstrual cup is a type of reusable feminine hygiene product. It’s a small, flexible bell-shaped cup made of rubber or silicone that a woman inserts into her vagina to catch and collect menstrual fluid. It can be used for up to 12 hours, after which it is removed to dispose of the fluid and cleaned. The cup is rinsed with hot water and soap between each insertion and sterilized in boiling water at least once per period. A cup can last up to 10 years . Although menstrual cups have been around for decades, they historically have been less popular than pads or ta
Read more

Human bodies respond to infections differently depending on the time of day

Image
When microorganisms – such as bacteria or viruses – infect us, our immune system jumps into action. It’s highly trained to sense and eliminate infections and clear up any damage caused by them. It’s typically assumed our immune systems work the exact same way regardless of whether an infection occurs during the day or at night. But research spanning over half a century now shows our bodies actually respond differently at day and night. The reason for this is our body clock, and the fact that each cell in the body, including our immune cells, can tell what time of day it is. Our body clock has evolved over millions of years to help us survive. Every cell in the body has a collection of proteins that indicate the time depending on their levels. Knowing whether it’s day or night means our body can adjust its functions and behaviours (such as when we want to eat) to the correct time. Our body clock does this by generating 24 hour rhythms (also termed circadian rhythms ) in how cells f
Read more