You are the project director for Aditya L1, the first Indian space mission to observe the Sun. How did you become a scientist?

I owe it to my parents. My father was a mathematics graduate and he inculcated in us, his children, a scientific temperament. He used to tell us a lot of stories about scientists, especially Marie Curie, stories that made me interested in physics and mathematics — that is how I entered the field of science. Later, I wanted to enter into technology and science, so I chose to study engineering and I got an opportunity to work here at ISRO. The work is one of a kind, so that has sustained me in this field.

What are the challenges women face in science, particularly space research, a traditionally male dominated field? Do you have any advice on how to tackle them?

At ISRO, there is no glass ceiling and no biasing because here, talent matters. Whoever is capable and if they show that they can, they will be given an opportunity to prove their mettle. But there is a bias in other fields. Social bias is still there. Women have a feeling that they are inferior. But we should be confident and sit at the front. That’s what I say. Normally, at meetings and conferences, women have a habit of taking the back seat. We have to build up and believe in ourselves.

What more can parents do to support their daughters?

They have to inculcate in their male and female children respect for each other and to help each other in their career growth. It has to be inculcated by the mother because biases must be thrown out at the start while the children are growing up.

In your field, failures often outweigh successes and are very public. Since this mission was launched soon after a failed Indian lunar mission. Would you tell us about anxieties and how to cope with them?

Yes... the Chandrayaan team took a little more time to motivate themselves to come out of that failure and work again to have a Chandrayaan-3, which is a success. This organization has a culture that somehow makes people self-motivated. Maybe it’s the field of technology we are working in and the teamwork we have cultivated here. In space, failures are very common. Very small mistake also cost us a lot. So it is an industry where we always anticipate failures. We keep our fingers crossed, even for a repeat mission. We motivate ourselves and the team spirit helps us.

The primary scientific goal of the Aditya L1 mission is to unravel the secrets of the sun’s influence on space weather dynamics by observing solar phenomena in real time. How will this help?

The sun has a lot of mysteries yet to be unearthed. It ejects out coronal mass ejection, flares and lot of ionized particles. These affects our space assets and astronauts who are going to be there. The radiation is a big challenge. Worldwide, a lot of things are going on in developing a better space weather model so that we can predict when the sun will lash out. But a good model has not yet been developed. We, as in India, do not want to lag behind in developing that space weather model. This spacecraft will help in giving us a better understanding so that in the future, we have a better warning system to protect our spaces assets.

Tell us about your life outside of space, your hobbies and your interests? 

I’m a trekker. I read a lot. And I have a small terrace garden at home. 

What’s your favorite book on space? 

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (1872). It was an inspiration during my school days. I used to read it very often. In those days, it was not very real. But now, working in space and realizing we are able to see much more than outer space, I think about that book. 

And what’s your favorite thing in outer space? 

Searching for life. It is the thing everyone most wants to know. Does any other life exist anywhere else? We make lot of space studies and space crafts to find out if there is life outside. And I also look for it.

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