As Pragyan digs deep into moon, scientists at a VSSC lab turn their gaze to solar wind

sree nivas August 28, 2023 GS3, Space Technology Leave a comment 175 Views

Syllabus: Space technology

Context: Aditya-L1 mission, meant to study the sun, lifts off in September.

First space-based Indian mission to study the sun from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the sun-earth system. XL variant of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to place the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in a low earth orbit. Once launched, it will take 125 days to travel to its destination at L1.

The Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) payload
- one of seven scientific payloads
- developed by the SPL
- to gain deeper insights into the phenomenon of solar wind
7 Payloads
- Aim: study the chromosphere, the photosphere and the outermost layers of the sun using electromagnetic and particle detectors
The PAPA payload
- One among the seven payloads
- Study the composition of the solar wind
- Study energy of electrons, the energy and mass of protons and ions in it and the angular variations