Girl power fuels India’s mission to moon’s South Pole
Project director of Chandrayaan-2 is M. Vanitha, an electronics systems engineer
Chennai: A good measure of women’s power is powering India’s Rs9.78 billion (Dh523 million) second moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2, with the project director and the mission director also being women.
“Nearly 30 per cent of the members working on the Chandrayaan-2 mission will be women,” K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), told journalists earlier.
The project director is M. Vanitha, an electronics systems engineer, shouldering the entire responsibility of the Chandrayaan-2.
Initially Vanitha, who was responsible for data handling systems for India’s remote sensing satellites, was reluctant to accept the historical responsibility.
However at the persuasion of M. Annadurai, then director of Isro’s Satellite Centre, she agreed.
On the other hand, mission director Ritu Karidhal, a Master’s degree holder in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, was the deputy operations director for the Mars mission.
Several attempts to reach out to them went in vain.
“We are not authorised to speak to the media. Sorry,” Karidhal politely said.