Home-grown technology for Aditya-1

[BlueDot_in_Space]

Aditya-1, India’s first space-based solar coronagraph which will be launched in a couple of years to study solar corona (plasma ‘atmosphere’ of the sun), will be 100% indigenous.

The advisory committee for space research, entrusted with the task of formulating the configuration for the coronagraph, has decided that critical components such as optical mirrors and the detector systems would be indigenously developed.

“The optical mirrors and the detector systems were earlier developed only in the US and Europe. They will be now built at two of Isro laboratories, the Laboratory for Electro Optics Systems in Bangalore and the Space Application centre in Ahmedabad,” Prof Jagdev Singh, principal investigator, Aditya-1, told DNA.

While the optical mirrors would be used to study the outer atmosphere of the sun, the detector systems would record images of the sun during the Aditya-1 mission, targeted at achieving a fundamental understanding of the physical processes that heat the solar corona (base to the extended), accelerate the solar wind and study coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Prof Singh added that the decision to go indigenous was taken by the committee after it was found that importing optical mirrors and the detector systems was expensive and time-consuming.

“It was found that building such important components in India will also help us developing new technologies for future projects,” he added.

Prof Singh said that the committee, comprising members from the Isro satellite centre, Indian institute of astrophysics, Udaipur solar observatory, radio astronomy centre and the national centre for radio astrophysics, was being finalised and the fabrication of components would start in the third quarter of 2011.

Aditya-1 would be launched in 2013-14 on board the PSLV and put at an orbit of 600 km above the earth for two years (there would be high solar activity during this period).

Corona is the plasma ‘atmosphere’ of the sun or other celestial bodies, extending millions of kilometres into space.

source:Home-grown technology for Aditya-1 - Bangalore - DNA

 

[Kinetic]

Good technology demonstration. This type of satellite derivatives has military applications as well.

 

[piyalghoshal]

Within few years India will challenge supremacy of america in space.It is a good competition which is good for the common people as technology refines and is been used in day to day life.Proud to be a indian.

 

[Splurgenxs]

Good thing that my names on it...i deem it to be successful

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

India joins international group to study the sun


Indian scientists are moving closer to launching three projects that are proposed to be part of a global effort to study the impact of an overheating sun.

The first of these—a special telescope to study the atmosphere around the sun, known as corona—was approved by the Union government six months ago and a memorandum of agreement will be signed with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in a few weeks, said Siraj Hasan, director of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), the main body working on all three projects.

The sun is entering a phase known as solar maxima, a period of intense heating that sees an increase in the number of solar flares and in the formation of sun spots. The phase lasts five-six years and follows a period called solar minima, a phase of low activity. The entire cycle lasts about 11 years.

During solar maxima, charged particles such as protons and electrons emitted by the sun’s fiery storms or flares get trapped in earth’s magnetic field, producing currents. These currents, when strong, are capable of producing electical disturbances that can affect the earth, Hasan explained.

Countries in high latitudes such as Alaska, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia are particularly affected by the occurrence, he said.

The three projects will study the effects of solar maxima on space and the earth, as well as to help estimate precisely how much thermal insulation would be required in spacecraft carrying astronauts. India’s first manned space mission is scheduled for 2015.

IIA’s space coronagraph is estimated to cost Rs.40 crore to develop. Including other expenses such as for launching the special telescope on a satellite named Aditya in 2013, the entire project cost is estimated at Rs.128 crore, said a spokesperson for Isro. IIA, a government body, is also building the world’s biggest solar telescope with a diameter of 2m. The project, estimated to cost Rs.150 crore, is being evaluated by the department of science and technology.

The world’s largest telescope now is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope in the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, US, which has a diameter of 1.6m. IIA’s third project is a multiple application solar telescope, or MAST, which is being installed in Udaipur in a collaboration with Ahmedabad’s Physical Research Laboratory to study the magnetic activity on the sun’s surface.

“All the three projects will give a comprehensive picture of activities happening from the sun’s surface to atmosphere in small and large scale,” Hasan said. “MAST will be functional by next year, Aditya by 2013, and NLST (National Large Solar Telescope—the second project) by 2016.”

These studies are expected to help scientists predict eruptions of solar flares and take precautionary measures, said Arnab Rai Choudhuri, an astrophysicist at the Indian Institute of Science.

“It takes two days for the flares to reach the Earth’s atmosphere and we can take precautions such as shutting down electronic equipment on satellites to avoid damage, or declare non-flight zone, particularly in polar regions,” he said.

IIA has proposed to share data from its studies with the International Space Weather Initiative (IWSI), an effort started by countries such as the US, the UK, France and Japan and supported by the United Nations Basic Space Science programme. India is a member.

IWSI held its first conference in November.

Several projects to study the sun are in the process of being commissioned, which will be taken by member nations.

Data from these studies will help scientists understand occurrences on the sun and predict their timing, said Nat Gopalswamy, secretary of IWSI and a staff scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) Goddard Space Flight Centre.

Separately, scientists from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea and Australia met in Bangalore last week to form a group to study the sun. “This is the first time that these nations are joining us in major issue bothering us in present times,” said Hasan of IIA, which hosted the meeting. “Earlier in 2005, a bilateral group was formed between India and China and now we have opened up to other nations as well.”

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

Good technology demonstration. This type of satellite derivatives has military applications as well.

Yeah!! the optical mirrors and detectors will be used in our Next gen remote sensing satellites

 

[Kinetic]

Aditya-1 details and updates


ADITYA-1 (Solar coronagraph)
ADITYA-1 is the first Indian space based solar coronagraph intended to study the solar corona in visible and near IR bands. It would be an internally occulted solar coronagraph planned to be launched during the solar maximum (2012-2013).

The main scientific objectives are:

1. Study of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) such as the coronal magnetic field structures, evolution of the coronal magnetic field, etc., and consequently the crucial role of CMEs in driving the space weather.

2. Obtain completely new information on the velocity fields and their variability in the inner corona which has an important bearing on the unsolved problem of ‘heating of the corona’.

The ADITYA-1 mission has been projectised and Space Commission has approved the mission during November 2009. Institutions participating in ADITYA-1 are Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO), Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) and Radio Astronomy Center (RAC), TIFR.

Specification requirements for all elements of payload including optical elements are being finalised. The facilities required to characterise the mirrors and methodology for measuring their performance is being addressed. Design options and Trade off options for Payload and Spacecraft subsystems are initiated. Subsystem specification requirements for spacecraft main bus are being worked out. The design options and configuration details are being discussed for finalisation.