Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the scientists of ISRO on the success of Chandrayaan-3 Mission, at ISRO in Bengaluru on August 26.
| Photo Credit: PTI
India erupted in joy when the Chandrayaan-3 lander with a rover inside touched down on the moon last week, marking a moment in history. While space explorations evoke tremendous interest, there is also a curiosity to unravel the sharpest minds of physicists, scientists, engineers and astronauts, who make such impossible missions possible.
Two new books by scientists who gave their time and life to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are the right place to understand what goes on behind the scenes at the eminent space agency. Rocketing Through the Skies: An Eventful Life at ISRO (Rupa) is the story of G. Madhavan Nair, whose association with ISRO started from its early days and led him to helm the organisation. However, the book is not a plain chronicle of his life but a tribute to the spirit of innovation and exploration that drives the country’s space technology.
It is set in pre-independent Kerala’s Thumba village that became well-known after the establishment of the Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in 1962. The sleepless nights in Thumba, the morale-breaking failures, the guidance of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the exhilaration of successes, Nair captures all these precious moments with the insight and candour of an insider. There are remarkable stories of determination, hard work and unwavering passion that reveal the philosophy of life and magic of teamwork that has enabled ISRO to make rapid strides over the decades.
The other one is Dr. R Chidambaram’s India Rising: Memoir of a Scientist (Penguin). With co-author Dr. Suresh Gangotra, he talks about the design and execution of the peaceful nuclear explosion experiment at Pokhran in 1974 and how the nuclear programme got a boost when he led the team of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in designing nuclear devices and carrying out Pokhran–II tests in 1998 in cooperation with the Defence Research and Development Organisation. Through stories of his interactions with the scientific community and the political leadership, Dr. Chidambaram gives a fascinating account of key events in India’s journey towards self-reliance in nuclear energy.
Sarabhai’s legacy
There are several books which explain the where, why and how of India’s foray into space technology.
The first name that obviously comes to mind is Sarabhai, the renaissance man of Indian science, who dreamed of communication satellites as tools of education for the masses at a time when a modest rocket programme seemed daring. Vikram Sarabhai: A Life (Penguin) by Amrita Shah is a vivid story of the man whose dreams continue to drive the country’s ambitious space programme. Chandrayaan-3’s lander takes its name from him.
Between 1947 and 1971, Sarabhai conducted research into cosmic rays, headed the Atomic Energy Commission; envisioned agricultural complexes serviced by atomic power; desalinated sea water; set up India’s first textile research cooperative (ATIRA), the first market research organisation (ORG), and the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. He was closely associated with influential figures of his time — from C.V. Raman and Jawaharlal Nehru to Bruno Rossi, Louis Kahn and John Rockefeller III, yet was at odds with powerful lobbies and fellow technologists in resisting India’s move towards a nuclear explosion in the late 1960s. The intimate account is worth the read as Shah delves into the life and mind of a multi-faceted genius, who died at 52.
Another popular literature is Vikram Sarabhai: India’s Space Pioneer by Padmanabh Joshi and Divya Arora (Natraj Publishers) that offers an endearing account of the man who put India on the world map with his unbounded interest in space, nuclear energy, architecture, industry, business, institution building, management development, art, music and theatre. The book is a poignant biography of a scientist, entrepreneur, educator and businessman rolled into one, whose legacy few can match.
All the ISRO’s men, and women
ISRO: A Personal History (Harper Collins) by another ISRO pioneer and award-winning scientist, R. Aravamudan, is a gripping story of the people who built India’s space research programme and how. Aravamudan served as the director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru, and creditably tells the tale of an Indian organisation that defied international bans and embargos, worked with meagre resources, evolved its indigenous technology to grow into a major space power. Co-authored by his journalist wife Gita Aravamudan, the book underlines the made-in-India story of ISRO.
My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man behind the Mangalyaan Mission by K. Radhakrishnan and Nilanjan Routh (Penguin) is another fascinating read. A witness to the evolution of India’s space programme since the era of Sarabhai, Radhakrishnan, an ISRO veteran, worked on the SLV-3 project, the country’s first satellite launch vehicle; created efficient centres to use satellite data for the benefit of people and established a tsunami warning system. Packed with invaluable information and insights, the fascinating memoir is filled with several behind-the-scenes anecdotes of scientific achievements and failures.
Under Radhakrishnan’s energetic leadership, ISRO successfully accomplished the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and the acronym is perhaps providential as ISRO’s success story is incomplete without its women scientists; particularly in the light of the fact that the space probe orbiting Mars (also called Mangalyaan) had women in 27% of its key executive positions.
Fighting naysayers and gender barriers, women scientists have assumed senior positions in ISRO’s historic missions and path-breaking work over the years. In ISRO’s Magnificent Women and their Flying Machines (Speaking Tiger), Minnie Vaid writes about their dedicated and tireless journey the world rarely hears about. The book leaves you in awe of their work that should be talked about more, because such uplifting books can inspire generations to come.