Isro launches Europe's Proba-3 mission to orbit: Why it's crucial to India?

ISRO today successfully launched European Space Agency's Proba-3 satellites into Earth's orbit from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota launchpad. Previously, it was scheduled for Dec 4

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched Europe's Proba 3 satellite into orbit on Thursday, taking India's solar mission to new heights. 

 

Isro and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working together on this ground-breaking mission, which will use two advanced satellites on an Indian launch vehicle to conduct revolutionary research on the Sun's corona.

 

Due to an anomaly that was discovered, the mission that was originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 4, was rescheduled for today at 16:12 IST. According to the latest updates, Proba -3 has successfully completed three stages of its launch and entered a coasting stage. The vehicle will reach the orbit during its fourth stage.

 

Isro’s tracking room confirms that all operations are normal, referring to the successful flight as a “textbook launch”.

 

Let’s take a deep dive into this crucial mission? In what ways would this mission be beneficial to India? 

What is Proba 3 and how is the name derived?

The word "Proba," which refers to a series of experimental missions conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA), is derived from the Latin phrase "Let us try." Proba-1 started the journey, followed in 2009 by Proba-2, which observed the Sun, and in 2013, Proba-V for Vegetation, which observed the Earth.

 

Teams from 14 European nations and 29 industrial partners worked on the Proba-3 mission, which was built at an estimated cost of 200 million euros. In collaboration with Isro's commercial arm, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), which assisted in the development of the launch vehicle, these teams spent more than ten years developing the satellites for the mission. Proba-3, which has a two-year mission life, is intended to create an artificial eclipse in order to investigate the Sun's corona at a completely new scale.

 

Two ESA satellites, each weighing around 550 kg, were launched by the PSLV-C59 into a highly elliptical orbit that is approx 600 x 60,530 kilometers with a 19.7-hour orbital period. At 4:12 p.m., the Proba-3 satellites were launched from the spaceport's first launch pad from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

How will India benefit from the Proba 3 launch?

Isro's contribution to the Proba 3 launch, which is being hailed as ESA's technology demonstration mission, demonstrates India's dependable space launch facilities and expanding space capabilities. It will also contribute to India's growing reputation for affordable space missions.

 

Indian Express claims that since Indian scientists were involved in the conception of the mission's scientific objectives, there is a good chance that the Proba-3 data will only be exclusively available to the Indian solar physicist community. This information may help India's own solar missions and present a chance for joint research between the two space organizations.

What is unique about the Proba-3 mission?

Because of the Sun's high temperature, which makes it hard for sensors to investigate closely, it has always been difficult to observe its ring-like corona. Prior to this, scientists could only examine the corona during solar eclipses, which occurs when the moon blocks enough sunlight for the corona to be seen from Earth.

 

Because of this short observation period, scientists frequently had to pursue eclipses around the globe, sometimes for just a few minutes or not at all if clouds blocked the view. Since the corona is the source of all space weather and the turbulence that goes along with it, including solar storms, solar winds, and others, scientists must study it.

 

ESA claims that the artificial eclipse of the Proba-3 mission will provide an astounding 100-fold increase in study time. An unprecedented chance to investigate the Sun's intricate atmospheric interactions will be provided by the mission, which is anticipated to produce about 50 "eclipses" a year, each lasting six hours.