Indian space mission's moment in the Sun

India’s space scientists are rejoicing as they are now calling it their ‘first significant results’: the test of the country’s first solar observation mission which may assist in ensuring the safety of power and communication structures on Earth from solar storms.

Scientists at ISRO are thrilled with the achievements of their space mission as the Aditya-L1, the first solar observation satellite has provided data that could enable scientists to determine the time of coronal mass ejections. These are “fireballs of massive proportions” that are ejected from the Sun’s corona and can have a severe impact on the weather on Earth as well as space bounded satellites. informed BBC News.

A single CME is “can be as large as a trillion kgs and may reach a velocity of 3,000km per second”, informed Professor R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, who is the chief designer of the instrument that got the data. “Just think of this huge fireball aiming towards the Earth. ”

CMEs, together with other forms of solar storms, can produce beautiful auroras near the North and South Pole, is according to the BBC. However, they can also be very destructive in that they can interfere with Earth’s magnetic field, thus affecting satellite guidance, power transmission and even collapsing power lines. For instance, in 1989 a CME struck the power grid in Quebec and – according to The Telegraph – ‘isolated part of the system for nine hours’ disabling power supply to six million Canadians.

For instance, Professor Ramesh told the broadcaster, “Today, our existence is fully based on communication satellites” and CMEs can “affect power transmission, telephone lines and radio waves, hence creating anarchy”.

But if space scientists are able to watch what is happening on the surface of the Sun then this can also “serve as early warning for companies to disconnect power grids and satellites and avoid being affected by the solar storms”.

Nasa, ESA, Japanese and Chinese space scientists have been operating solar observation missions for many years, but India’s solar space mission is new. Aditya-L1 was launched in September 2023 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and it had to “travel 1. 5 million kilometres from Earth” to become a Sun-grazing spacecraft, The Guardian reported.

According to Nature, India’s space goals are at a crossroads, “following the successes of its lunar and Martian explorations and with the backing of visionary policies,” and ambitious plans for innovative space research and “revolutionary concepts. ”

The country has already achieved many great things in space, the US politics website The Hill reported. It was the first country to place a probe on the southern part of the Moon, has circumnavigate Mars and has also sent out two astronomy space probes.

This year, India has made several announcements and has sanctioned 227 billion rupees for space projects, which is its “biggest ever budget allocation” for the space projects, stated BBC News. Some of the plans include manned space exploration to the Moon, sending of an orbiter to Venus and the first phase of a space station. The Indian’s dream to become one of the world’s super powers in space along with the United States and China is “stunning”, The Hill wrote.