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K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), seemed at ease as his brainchild, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), flies towards Mars on a 300-day journey. From his office that faces a lush green garden, he shares with T E Narasimhan and Praveen Bose what Isro is up to. Edited excerpts:
You are still celebrating the successful launch of the Mars orbiter mission (MOM). What next?
We had launched the spacecraft PSLVC25 on November 5 and we placed the Mars Orbiter spacecraft very precisely into an elliptical orbit around Earth. The perigee (closest point to Earth) was 247 km and apogee (farthest point in the orbit of the Earth) was 23,563 km. The operations going on now are for raising the apogee from 23,563 km to nearly 192,000 km and that should happen by November 16. We have this trans-Mars injection in the early hours of December 1. We have more operations planned.
What challenges did you face?
This is India’s first interplanetary probe and these are very complex; and this is the most complex space mission we have undertaken. Two, we are of course learning from the earlier missions.
The project was approved by the Cabinet, and the prime minister announced it in August 2012. The requirements for the mission were that we had to execute it on D-Day i.e. November 30 or the early morning of December 1, when the spacecraft needs to leave the Earth orbit. The cushion available for us was only one or two weeks for the launch because we needed to have the launch of the satellite in the first orbit by the middle of November, so that we could do the orbit raising and then ready it to move towards Mars.
What were the technical challenges?
One was in terms of the complexities that needed to be addressed of the spacecraft in terms of autonomy of the craft, and in terms of the restart capability that had to be verified. The engine has to operate from the time the PSLV is put in orbit, to the time the spacecraft is put in the orbit of Mars. For the second part, we had to build the level of autonomy in the spacecraft so that despite the communication delay (because the distance between the Earth and Mars will cause communication delays of four minutes or longer, between the spacecraft and engineers on the Earth) the spacecraft is able to manage contingencies by itself.
What do you think would be most complex part of the mission?
The third part of it is when you have the spacecraft of this nature reaching the orbit of Mars. That is when we turn on the instruments on the spacecraft.
How did you augment the infrastructure on the ground?
The entire ground station needed to gear up for this. The first augmentation was made for Chandrayaan where the distance was 400,000 km. But here, it was 400 million km. Secondly, you require much more power to manage precious ranging. We required ground stations but those ground stations were on land. Hence, we needed to deploy, for the first time, ship-bound ground stations and we approached the Shipping Corporation of India and got two vessels. But as these could not reach on time, we postponed the launch by one week to November 5. These ships’ performances were critical because only these would tell us about the ignition of the fourth stage, the injection of the satellite and the separation of the satellite. People worked almost round the clock and we had to do additional tests on the spacecraft.
Was 15 months justifiable for such a mission?
We did not start from zero. There were a lot of things known to us (thanks to Chandrayaan, the moon mission). If you look at the normal way of working, it was an impossible schedule; but when you are determined to do it and the teams are giving their best for their project, then you can say nothing is impossible and you can do it.
How did you manage the lower cost (compared with other agencies’)?
If you take India’s space programme in general, the budget is small. Our budget is 7.5 per cent of NASA’s.
What is the secret then? If you look at India from the time of SLV III, and Aryabhata in the ’70s, we have been following the modular approach (one project feeding into the next), which is one of our secrets.
You seem obsessed with the schedules.
When it comes to cost, we are obsessed with schedules. For example, we could have done the Mars Mission in 2016 or 2018. But we decided to do it in the first opportunity and then we worked towards that.
How do you control costs?
When you are obsessed with the schedule and there are not many schedule overruns, costs will come down. Working culture, novel method, modularity, optimisation of test, obsession with quality and salary, all these help to make the missions cheaper compared with other space organisations’ missions.
What is Isro’s work culture like?
We have a different working style, and people put in 18-hour days. During launches, people take just four hours of rest. They give their blood to the programme and organisation. People don’t worry about annual vacation, casual leave, events, etc. Many launches have come during festivals. But people work. They have a passion for the work. This is how the impossible becomes possible.
How many launches are planned in the future?
We have 18 missions lined up till March 2015.
Is there any convention yet on Mars exploration? What has ISRO done?
We should not create pollution there. There’s no convention yet with regards to Mars as there is with moon. As of now, there are few exploring it. In future, we see such a convention coming, just like the moon treaty.
In case of Mars, we can have a geo-satellite. But, this is a different class. We can have an inter-planetary fly-by (like the Voyager of NASA).
Where do we go from here?
The next one is the orbiter. This will help us take a closer look at the planet. The third is to land there. It can be a soft or hard landing. In case of Chandrayaan, it came down by itself. If the landing is precise, it will be a soft landing. The next is that of sample returns. The spacecraft can take samples and bring them back. But, it needs the mechanism to store it and bring it back. That’s the next level of complexity. The next is human flight to Mars.
What are the kind of collaborations could ISRO consider?
There could be collaboration in the area of lunar exploration, and for exploring the sun and Mars. We can have a larger mission. The next one has to be a more complex mission. We did a joint project of building a satellite with the French a while ago. We had worked with the French on developing two landers. We have now done a joint study with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
What's the joint study with JPL all about?
With the JPL, the study is on microwave remote sensing. It's about the study of pulse and know what is not normally visible cloudy conditions, for instance If cloud is there. In remote sensing, depending on the frequency one can identify what's there by depending on frequency characteristic change. For instance, the 'L' band studies vegetation. Another one, the S band gives another study. Or, the X band gives another feel. We have done studies with the C Band. In the project with JPL, we look at both L and S band.
The spacecraft will be made by us. There's a very large antenna required which will be a 12 metre diameter antenna. This will be launched by 2019-20. In the second phase, we do the project report preparation. Then, we work on satellite together.
On the Chandrayaan. NASA brought instruments. In this case it will be a collaboration. Both agencies will work together.
Please describe the benefits derived for people from the findings of ISRO.
The Madras School of Economics did a study 2000-03 study that studied the tangible and intangible benefits from ISRO's work. How communication is structured, and how disaster management reports are studied. It has direct and indirect economic benefits and also intangible benefits are derived. It is cost-effective, if it is made in that. On the application side, it has gone into many areas. A few more areas are to be done. If you look at fishermen, using the surface temperature data we give daily forecasting on the right place to find food catch. The information is displayed on the notice board in fishing harbours. You find many fishermen using GPS now for a good catch based on the information we provide.
These are areas where fish is in plenty. Some days you get a good catch. We carry the announcements in each language in the coastal areas, such as in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Konkani, Oriya, Bangla and any other language spoken in the respective areas. In Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadeep too we provide the information. It gives direct benefit to millions of people. There are about 100,000 fishing vessels. If fishing vessels can get precise data, then savings on vessel diesel is huge.
Now it's an active season for agriculture. In agriculture, we use remote sensing to estimate crop production. We use technology and put it in a model. The Mahalanobis Centre for Crop Forecast in New Delhi uses ISRO's data. We also look at water resources. The GSI uses it for information on land area. One can get large-scale mop, for instance 1: 10,000. Planners use it to see what is it they need to do to optimise the impact their work. It helps in Informed decision-making. The budget on this is Rs 50,000-60,000 crore.
In case of ground water, using conventional method, one may derive only about 50% of the water that once can get. Features like faults for example can be found. In this method, the success rate is 90%. Maps help people to locate wells in right place. If a farmer spends Rs 1 lakh and gets water, that's a direct benefit.
Also, in the '70s, thousands of people died in cyclones. Now it is reduced because ISRO is able to provide timely information.
