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Who doesn’t remember India’s maiden mission to Mars! Mangalyaan was a mission India was proud of since the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh’s announcement of it on 15th August 2012. It was a massive achievement that further widened the country’s space ambitions.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) took close to a year and a half for the actual preparations after the announcement by the Prime Minister. The team involved 500 scientists who were roped in from different ISRO centers in India. However, what many people don’t know is that women were the major driving force in the MOM mission being successful. Over 27% of major executive positions were held by women who played a crucial role in its success.
Women Behind Mission Mangal
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Ritu Karidhal, Anuradha TK, Nandini Harinath, Minal Rohit, and Moumita Dutta were a few among the power-packed crew who played a key role. The MOM team were allotted a time frame of 18 months to make things happen. And some of these women had an edge as they had previously worked on Chandrayaan-1. There were a lot of mathematical aspects and iterations that needed to be calculated. Having pure mathematical skills, the women were able to stand by their decisions through all of the maneuvers, calculations, and designs. Their calculations were so accurate that they did not slip even once in the multiple reviews held by MOM. MOM’s project director, Subbiah Arunan claims that the team which included women like Ritu and Nandini were steadfast in the reviewing committee.
Nandini Harinath recalls the excitement and suspense she felt when the MOM team was being selected. They wondered if the project would be sanctioned at all as it was a really expensive one which had no social applications unlike the other projects of ISRO which made it big. There was also the concern if the study team would make it into the project team.
Breaking The Stereotype
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After the Prime Minister confirmed the project, rumors started floating around as to who would be part of the team. Nandini was selected among a huge group of 3,000 scientists at the URCS.
Moumita Dutta, who was the project manager of MOM, says that everybody was incredibly curious to know more about Mars. Moumita and Minal had a significant role to play as SAC scientists once the craft started revolving around Mars. The scientific instruments at the Space Application Center (SAC) were built and tested by them. Meanwhile, Nandini and Ritu were handling mission operations. They were the ones calculating the satellite’s trajectory to the Red Planet while also designing an autonomous software to self-correct the problems.
Mangalyaan was a project where they decided to go all public on social media platforms which allowed the nation to witness the roles that these women scientists played in ISRO. The whole country was enthusiastic and supportive as they were making use of different techniques for the first time ever. And Mars was always seen as a planet where colonization might be possible later on. S Arunan says that the team of women came up with some innovative solutions for imparting more energy to the spacecraft without spending too much money on fuel by thinking out of the box.
Even though men had also worked equally hard in making the mission possible, the work done by women in space research had always remained invisible. The effort and hard work of these women and many more involved in the project just goes to show that women can shatter the glass ceiling in male-dominated corridors of power. With missions like Mangalyaan, these women set an example that they can shoulder equal responsibilities just like men. For the young generation of girls who are aspiring to be scientists and astronauts, these women show that your dreams can fly beyond the skies, quite literally!
