Senior space scientist and director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), V. Narayanan on Sunday described Saturday’s placing of the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in halo orbit at Lagrange point L1 to study the sun as a “perfect mission.”
The LPSC had a critical role in the mission’s success and everything had worked as expected, Dr. Narayanan said on his return to Thiruvananthapuram after the mission on Sunday. The LPSC, based at Valiamala in Thiruvananthapuram district, was responsible for the propulsion systems in the Aditya-L1 spacecraft and the PSLV rocket that was used to launch ISRO’s sun mission in September last year.
Travelling 15 lakh km
The propulsion systems on Aditya-L1 accounted for 40% of the total mass of the spacecraft. The liquid propulsion systems delivered by the LPSC had to provide the required muscle power for Aditya-L1 to travel 15 lakh km to reach the L1 point of the sun and keep it in orbit for five years, according to the LPSC.
Towards this, the LPSC had delivered a bipropellant-based propulsion system consisting primarily of one Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM), eight 22 Newton (N) and four 10 N thrusters and associated propulsion elements.
The spacecraft will be maintained in halo orbit using attitude control thrusters throughout the designed life of spacecraft, the LPSC said. For the PSLV-C57 rocket which had launched the mission from Sriharikota in September last year, the LPSC had delivered liquid propulsion stages, and control power plants among other things.
Next ISRO mission
Talking to reporters here on Sunday, Dr. Narayanan said the next mission of ISRO will be a GSLV mission carrying the INSAT 3DS satellite. Tests planned this year as part of 2025 Gaganyaan mission include G-X unmanned orbital demonstration flight.
