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(GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER) ADITYA-L1 SPACECRAFT COMPLETED ITS FIRST HALO ORBIT

(AUGUST-2024)

Why in News: India’s first solar mission Aditya-L1 spacecraft completed its first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L1 point on 2 July 2024.

The Aditya-L1 mission is an Indian solar observatory at Lagrangian point L1, launched by PSLV-C57 on September 2, 2023 and was inserted in its targeted halo orbit on January 6, 2024 which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth.
According to ISRO, Aditya-L1 spacecraft in the halo orbit took 178 days to complete a revolution around the L1 point

Lagrange points are positions in space where objects sent there tend to stay put.
At Lagrange points, the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.
There are five special points where a small mass can orbit in a constant pattern with two larger masses. Of the five Lagrange points, three are unstable and two are stable.

Unstable Lagrange points - labeled L1, L2 and L3 - lie along the line connecting the two large masses.
Stable Lagrange points - labeled L4 and L5 - form the apex of two equilateral triangles that have the large masses at their vertices. L4 leads the orbit of earth and L5 follows.
L1 point of the Earth-Sun system affords an uninterrupted view of the sun.

Halo orbit is a periodic, three-dimensional orbit at L1, L2 or L3 Lagrange points in a 3-body system
Halo Orbits can be thought of as resulting from an interaction between the gravitational pull of the two planetary bodies and the Coriolis and centrifugal force on a spacecraft.
Halo orbits exist in any 3-body system, e.g., an Earth-Moon orbiting satellite system.