Panaji : Dr Ritu Karidhal, Senior Scientist at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) spoke at a webinar organised by International Centre Goa on May 20. ‘The making of India’s Rocket Woman’ Dr Ritu Karidhal was in conversation with ICS’s Vice President Dattaraj Salgaocar while the introduction was done by ICG president Yatin Kakodkar.
The senior scientist reckoned that in future Mars voyages would be a reality. Dr Ritu Karidhal is popularly known as ‘Rocket Woman’ because she played a key role in realizing the Mars Orbiter Mission. This mission made history because it was a first successful attempt at reaching Mars while other countries have tried but failed several times before succeeding.
Dr Ritu’s talk was quite fascinating whe she explained how success lies in teamwork, she has beautifully illustrated her work graphically.
Dr Ritu has also been the mission director of the Chandrayan-2 mission and had carried out the operation from lift off to the moon landing. She made it very evident that mathematical precision is the essence of any space mission.
She also noted that there are career opportunities for students in space science “The deep space is a space of unknowns.There is phenomenal room for research in so many aspects, whether it is space science or rocket science there is the baseline to look at lander, rover, orbiter, mishaps…look at foolproof systems and learn lessons.”
Dr Ritu concluded saying there is no gender or generation gap at ISRO and that she would like to invite young bright minds from Goa to support ISRO’s challenges in space research.
