Aditya L1 Mission: Why will Aditya L1 be positioned at the L1 point in the Earth-sun system?

The Aditya L1 launch is scheduled to take place on Saturday, according to an announcement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Read More :Aditya L1 Mission is scheduled to launch from Sriharikota on September 2nd

India's first solar mission

All preparations are going according to plan. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has finished its internal tests and is fully set for its 59th mission, which is to launch India's first solar mission into low earth orbit, according to a press release from the Indian space agency that included images of the launch rehearsal.

Will be placed at Lagrange point

Can Aditya L1 touch down on the Sun? No. The solar probe would be placed at the first Lagrange point in the Earth-Sun system, unlike Chandrayaan 3, which saw the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover softly settle near the lunar south pole.

The spacecraft is expected to travel the 1.5 million km to the L1 point through a series of manoeuvres over the course of four months, according to ISRO. Surprisingly, this gap only accounts for 1% of the total 150 million miles between Earth and the Sun.

Parker Solar Probe, first spacecraft to ever touch the Sun

The first spacecraft to ever touch the Sun did so in December 2021. The Parker Solar Probe, operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, travelled into the Sun's upper atmosphere, or corona, and collected samples of its particles and magnetic fields. About 7.8 million km were travelled by the Parker Probe to get to the Sun's surface.

It has been doing loops ever since in a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun, getting closer with each circle and transmitting a wealth of observational data.

The NASA probe, which orbits the Sun, is presently located about 50 million km from Earth. It is circling Venus right now in order to get ready for a forthcoming near encounter with the Sun.

The Parker Probe successfully passed by Venus on August 21, according to the most recent NASA data, using the planet's gravity to align itself for an impending series of record-breaking flights around the Sun, which are scheduled to begin next month.

The spacecraft is still on course to complete its upcoming closest encounter of the Sun, according to the US space agency.

Parker Solar Probe will use Venus flybys to gradually decrease its orbit around the Sun, eventually getting as close to the surface as 6.16 million km. This proximity puts it almost seven times closer than any previous mission and well within Mercury's orbit.

Parker Solar Probe will be whizzing around the Sun at an astounding speed of over 692,000 km/h on its predicted closest approach in June 2025! To put this in perspective, it would take two seconds to get from New Delhi to Lahore.