After Chandrayaan-3 success, Isro to launch solar mission on 2 Sept
₹400 crore, or less than $45 million. The primary objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission would be to study the upper atmospheric conditions of the sun, including observing heating in the sun’s corona—the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere. Studies will also seek to observe solar flares, as well as get a deeper understanding of the physics behind partially ionized plasma—also known as the fourth state of matter.
Aditya-L1 will also seek to understand the sequence of solar conditions that lead to solar flares, which in turn could be crucial to predict particularly strong such flares. To be sure, while this is Isro’s first space observatory directed at the sun, it isn’t India’s first space observatory. In September 2015, Isro’s AstroSat became India’s first space observatory and was scheduled to serve as India’s own space telescope for five years.
The space telescope remains active to date. The study of solar flares has been globally regarded as crucial to understanding how changes in conditions on the sun may affect life on earth. While solar flares may not directly lead to death, strong solar radiations can cause blackout of satellite and radio communications on earth—leading to potentially significant disruption of global communications infrastructure.
The most recent such incident took place on 7 August, leading to the disruption of radio and navigation signals across the North American continent. These storms are typically rated on a scale issued by the Space Weather Prediction Centre at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Studying the solar conditions, according to scientists, would be key to predicting the cycle, causing factors and magnitude of these storms—in effect protecting networks and
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