Chandrayaan-2 – Women Behind the Mission
Chandrayaan-2 – Women Behind the Mission
The Brilliant Women, Behind the Success of Chandrayaan 2
Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the moon, has been celebrated across the country for making history in more ways than one. It was successfully launched by ISRO on July 22 by GSLV MkIII-M1 Vehicle at 1443 hours.
GSLV Mk-III-M-1 is carrying three robotics to the Moon. But, this time two women scientists of ISRO were working behind the scene and made it possible for India.
As the country celebrates the proud moment, people are also praising The Brilliant Minds behind the Success of the Mission and they are two incredible women.
The Two Incredible Super Women
Now, the highlight of the success was the mission that was led by two women scientists, Muthayya Vanitha and Ritu Karidhal.
Muthayya Vanitha is the director responsible for the ISRO’s Rs 978 crore project from start to finish.
Ritu Karidhal is the mission director coordinating the injection of Chandrayaan-2 into orbit.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has carried out 105 spacecraft missions and 75 launch missions since its establishment in 1969.
It had never happened before when women power is heading this much of highly important ISRO mission.
For the last two decades, they have been associated with ISRO. They were part of several launches as well as the development of sub-systems for satellites.
ISRO has previously had women project directors for the launch of communication and other satellites.
But this is the first time, Project Director and Mission Director both are women for Chandrayaan-2.
Although India has lagged in a number of areas when it comes to gender equality, a study has revealed that it is one of several countries with a high proportion of women studying in STEM.
The Great Role Models
Muthayya Vanitha (The Project Director)
An electronics system engineer from the UR Rao Satellite Centre, Muthayya specialises in digital signal processing and has written numerous papers on satellite communications.
She is the one who is responsible for the success and failure of Chandrayaan-2.
She received The Best Woman Scientist Award from the Astronautical Society of India in 2006.
The science journal Nature has named her as One of the Five Scientists to Watch Out for in 2019.
As a Project Director of Chandrayaan-2, Vanitha has been responsible for the project from the very beginning.
It involves getting the entire system configured, reviewed, assembled and implemented. She also a single-point authority for the overall project.
Ritu Karidhal (The Mission Director)
Ritu Karidhal was the deputy operations director for Mangalyaan, India’s Mars mission. It was India’s first interplanetary mission.
She studied aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Science.
Her job was to conceptualize and execute the craft’s onward autonomy system, which operated the satellite’s functions independently in space and responded appropriately to malfunctions.
She has been working with ISRO since 1997. She has received ISRO Young Scientist Award from former president APJ Abdul Kalam in 2007.
“We only looked at the fittest person for the job, and it so happened it was women here. It didn’t make a difference for us,” said by Dr K. Sivan, Chairman, Isro, adding that women scientists and engineers have held top positions in satellite communications and other divisions in the past in Isro
Shadows of the Mission
Apart from these ladies, S Pandian as the director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, S. Rajarajan, VSSC’s Jayaprakash as the head of launcher team, S Somanath who provided the GSLV MkIII launcher for the mission, P Kunhikrishnan, whose URSC holds the key to spacecraft and lander functions; and VV Srinivasan, whose tracking centre ISTRAC in Bengaluru handled vital post-launch manoeuvres of the spacecraft, have stayed in the shadows of the lunar mission.
Gaganyaan: Woman on Space
ISRO will soon launch its manned space project sending one woman astronaut, along with two others, to space under Gaganyaan Mission.
VR Lalithambika to head this human space programme and working with Human Space Flight Centre, the nodal centre for Gaganyaan mission led by its director S Unnikrishnan Nair.
Read More,
Inching towards the edge of discovery, Are you ready for the unknown Chandrayan 2?
