ISRO’s ‘Aditya’ mission to probe Sun before 2020

Indian Space Research Organisation has lined up over a dozen missions, including its first probe on the Sun before 2020.

The mission to probe the Sun was already on the cards, the agency now has a clear picture of its plan and had put a timeframe within which it hoped to undertake it, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said, while addressing students at a private University in Chennai.

He said the “Aditya” mission to the Sun had been planned between 2017 and 2020.

“The mission would be around the Earth. A few equipment are being planned for that. We hope for the launch between 2017 and 2020,” ISRO chairman said. Apart from Aditya, space habitat studies were also being planned in these three years.

However, later during an interaction, he declined to comment whether the Union Cabinet had cleared the project.

ISRO’s next in line was IRNSS 1-B, the second of seven satellites, which form the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System — an Indian equivalent of USA’s Global Positioning System. The launch of IRNSS 1-B was likely in April first week, while the experimental launch of GSLV Mark III was expected in the last week of May or in the first week of June, he said.

On the capacity of launching vehicles, he said ISRO aimed at increasing the capacity of GSLV by four tonnes between 2014 and 2017 and further enhancing to six to 10 tonne before 2020.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4367-isro%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98aditya%E2%80%99-mission-to-probe-sun-before-2020.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4367-isro%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98aditya%E2%80%99-mission-to-probe-sun-before-2020.html