Ritu Karidhal, India’s ‘rocket woman’ who was the face behind ISRO’s Mangalyaan mission

Mangalyaan was an extremely ambitious project—even for ISRO, which had always set audacious goals. A third-world country launching a mission to Mars was a first. The development of Mangalyaan took a record 18 months from project approval to completion. This was ISRO’s first attempt to go beyond Earth. The scientists did not know how to cope when the satellite would go past Earth’s gravity. In space, the time taken to communicate goes up from seconds to minutes, so the scientists would not know what was going on with the satellite. So the spacecraft had to be extremely autonomous, intelligent enough to identify and recover from its own problems.

While she had been involved in some aspects of the Chandrayaan, Ritu was appointed Deputy Operations Director of Mission Planning and Operations for the Mangalyaan mission. Her team was assigned to conceptualize and ensure the execution of the craft’s autonomous brain—one of the most mission-critical tasks. Ritu was tasked with drafting the autonomy software.

‘I had to ensure that it was all executed without any flaw or anomaly. When it comes to launching spacecraft, the slightest anomaly can spell disaster, especially in the case of manoeuvres and Mars orbit insertions, so every single detail had to be thoroughly vetted.’

Ritu’s days became even longer. They would start at the crack of dawn and go on until late in the night. Brainstorming meetings, studying, researching, experimenting every single day, hacking away at the problems and finding new solutions. The convivial and cooperative nature of ISRO made for a workplace where gender was irrelevant. What mattered was the person’s ability to find a solution and contribute. This attitude created an enriching and fun environment, helping the team stay motivated through late nights and working weekends.

There were many occasions when official duties took precedence over the family. Once, her daughter fell severely ill, her fever spiking to well above 100. Ritu was frantic! Not all the sponging in the world helped cool her daughter down. But she had an urgent mission-critical meeting at the office. Could she really leave her daughter at this moment? Ritu felt torn. But her husband took charge.

‘It’s just a fever. I’m here, I’ll take care of her. Your meeting is very important. Go on,’ he said, giving her the strength to focus on her work.

Inspired by her mother’s example, Ritu had always taken charge of the kids’ education as her personal key responsibility. In the run-up to Mangalyaan, Ritu often reached home much later than the kids’ bedtime. But she made it a point to wake up the children and go over their schoolwork. Once they went to sleep, she would begin her second shift of work from home, between midnight and 4 a.m. Even though she barely got 4–5 hours of sleep, this enabled Ritu to feel she was fulfilling her responsibilities both at work and as a mother. It gave her a sense of joy to be able to do both. Her home became an extension of her office for the duration.

Ritu feels that while women have a tremendous amount of mental strength, they often give up physically. Many of them operate by fixed timelines and give up on their own dreams to take care of other people. She was determined to pursue all her dreams, personal and professional. At the same time, the late nights and the workload began taking their toll, leaving her exhausted. Ritu turned to yoga to find the physical and mental strength to cope with everything on her plate. Prayers, meditation, reading and spending whatever time she could find with the kids helped her keep her balance through this and other difficult times.

The launch of Mangalyaan was planned for 28 October 2013. The ISRO telemetry ship steamed off for the Pacific Ocean, to put certain antennas in place. Meanwhile, the finished spacecraft was moved to Sriharikota. Ritu and her team were to monitor and control the satellite’s path from the control room in Bengaluru. Everything was on a very exacting schedule. The satellite had to be launched within a certain time window. If not, the entire mission would have to be postponed by two years.

Then disaster struck! Stormy weather set in over the Pacific Ocean. Massive waves roiled the waters. The ship was unable to move ahead. The entire team was frantically biting its nails! Day filled with extreme tension went by. Ritu and the rest of the MOM team wondered if their back-breaking efforts of 15 months would come to nothing.

Finally, on 4 November, they received good news. The storms had abated and the ship was powering ahead. Frenzied work began to ensure the success of the mission—which would be a massive feather in India’s cap. It would be the first Asian nation to complete a Mars mission. Ritu felt both anxious and eager—she had been responsible for many of the key innovations that would enable the satellite to succeed, and this was the acid test.

Despite the best efforts of the team, it was possible to launch Mangalyaan only on the morning of 5 November. Then began the process of daily monitoring and regular progress updates to find out whether the mission was proceeding as per plan.

After travelling in deep space for around 10 months, the satellite reached near Mars where the very critical one-time manoeuvre known as Mars Orbit Insertion needed to be performed. At this point in the mission, the satellite was supposed to near Mars and fire an on-board rocket to slow its speed relative to the planet. This was to help it to slip into a long looping orbit around the planet.

Ritu counted down the minutes together with the team, excitement jostling with tension. Slipping into orbit around Mars at the entry point is a tricky proposition. Inaccurate targeting, timing or a flawed engine firing could cause the satellite to be destroyed or to miss Mars completely.

When the satellite sent the signal of correct insertion into Mars orbit, the tension in the control room turned to jubilation. The scientists turned to each other with grins of achievement and started clapping spontaneously. They had done what no other country had done before—completed a successful Mars mission on their very first attempt.

Ritu felt an incredible sense of fulfilment and pride—this was what had driven her to ISRO, this kind of achievement was what she had hankered after! With the success of Mangalyaan, Ritu gained some measure of prominence. When she travelled in India or abroad, she was recognized and feted for her achievements. She felt especially thrilled when people abroad expressed their admiration for ISRO’s achievements and the contributions of female scientists towards them. She was invited to speak at various forums, including TEDx conferences and schools and colleges that wanted her to address students. Relatives and friends who hadn’t been very interested in what exactly she did suddenly wanted to know more. Her children, especially her 10-year-old son, beamed whenever they saw her on television. The country gave the female scientists at ISRO the epithet of Rocket Women of India.