India sets sights on sun. After successfully landing its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon, India’s space agency Isro plans to deploy a probe to explore the sun on September 2.
The news comes only days after India became the first country to land a spacecraft on the moon’s unexplored south pole.
According to Reuters, the Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based solar probe, aims to research solar winds, which can cause disturbances on Earth and are usually recognised as “auroras.”
The ship, called after the Hindi word for sun, will be launched from India’s main spaceport in Sriharikota using India’s heavy-duty launch vehicle, the PSLV, and will travel approximately 1.5 million kilometres (932,000 miles), according to the agency.
Also read: How Chandrayaan-3 success can offer huge economic benefits to India
“The total travel time from launch to L-1 (Langrange point) would take about four months for Aditya-L1,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a post on X.
In 2019, the government authorised approximately $46 million for the mission.
Isro has not provided an official cost update and has not responded to a request for feedback.
As India sets sights on sun, it has a reputation for launching successful spacecraft at low cost. Its most recent lunar expedition cost around $75 million, which is less than the budget of the Hollywood space drama “Gravity.”
Chandrayaan-3 is the third Indian lunar exploration mission in the Chandrayaan programme of the Indian Space Research Organisation. It is made up of a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan, both of which are comparable to those used in the Chandrayaan-2 project.
