Control of systems tough in space real time: Dr Karidhal

LUCKNOW: ISRO scientist and mission director coordinating the injection of Chandrayaan-2 into orbit Dr Ritu Karidhal said on Wednesday that the Mars Mission was

LUCKNOW: ISRO scientist and mission director coordinating the injection of Chandrayaan-2 into orbit Dr Ritu Karidhal said on Wednesday that the Mars Mission was conducted mainly by young scientists at a very low internationally competitive cost and in a record 18 months.

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Dr Karidhal was addressing students during a talk on Mangalyan and Chandrayan-2 organised by the Lucknow university as an extension of the convocation 2019.

An alumnus of the physics department, Lucknow University, she said even in the experimentation of sending satellites to Mars or moon, only the basic principles of physics, specially Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, were applicable that students learn at school or college level, of course with great precision and accurate calculation.

“While sending satellite to Mars or moon, the first step was to cross the gravitational orbit of the earth in successive attempts and to catch the orbit of the Mars or moon with precision in timing. One mistake would destroy the whole mission and there was no second chance available,” she said.

Notably, Dr Karidhal, in addition to being mission director of Chandrayan-2, was also deputy director of the Mars Mission. She showed the manoeuvring of the orbits graphically through a power point presentation and said that a signal sent to the orbiter came back in nearly 40 minutes. So in space real time the control of systems was very tough and hence autonomy of the instruments was more in focus. In her lecture she outlined the Chandrayan-1 mission as well.