Jakarta –
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the Aditya-L1 solar observatory from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in the Sriharikota Range, India, on Saturday (2/9). Europe also supports this mission.
The launch of the Aditya-L1 probe to the Sun is an ambitious mission that will produce large amounts of scientific data. Various challenges will be faced considering that the balance of the spacecraft in orbit is unstable.
“With a global network of space Earth stations and experience flying on similar missions, ESA has the right infrastructure and expertise to provide support,” said a statement by the European space agency ESA, quoted from the official ESA website as seen on Tuesday (5/9/2023).
Aditya-L1
Aditya-L1 will be India’s first satellite mission to study the Sun. After launch, the spacecraft will travel to its new home, the first Lagrange point (L1) of the Sun-Earth system.
From there, his seven instruments will be used to investigate various dynamic and turbulent questions about the Sun. Four of them will look directly at the Sun, while the other three will take on-site measurements to explore the properties of space weather the Sun generates in interplanetary space.
ESA support for Aditya-L1
According to ESA, it will support Aditya-L1 in two ways. First, the agency provides space communications services for the mission. Second, since last year, ESA has been helping ISRO with validation of important new flight dynamics software.
Communications is an essential part of any space mission. Without the support of the Earth station, it would be impossible to get any scientific data from the spacecraft, to know how it was, to know if it was safe or even to know where it was.
“ESA’s global network of space tracking stations and use of internationally recognized technical standards allow us to help our partners track, command and receive data from their spacecraft almost anywhere in the Solar System,” said Ramesh Chellathurai, ESA Service Manager and ESA Cross-Support Liaison Officer for ISRO.
“For the Aditya-L1 mission, we are providing support from our three 35 meter deep space antennas in Australia, Spain and Argentina, as well as support from our Kourou Station in French Guiana and coordinated support from Goonhilly Ground Station in the region in the UK,” detailed ONE.
According to ESA, they are the primary provider of Earth station services for Aditya-L1. The ESA station supports the mission from start to finish, from the critical ‘Launch and Initial Orbit Phase’, all the way to L1, and to sending commands to and receiving science data from Aditya-L1 for several hours per day.
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