Finally, Bollywood made a movie inspired by the Mars Orbiter Mission, but there are even more exciting stories in the archives. ATS Studios with Spotify realised this gap, and a podcast was born. Mission ISRO is "one of the more comprehensive histories of ISRO", as the producer Gaurav Vaz said.

About the company: All Things Small

Gaurav Vaz is the co-founder and COO of All Things Small, a media company aiming to tell true stories. The company started back in October 2019. A bunch of people who never worked together had an idea - "creating content, which is true stories focused or non-fiction focused, coming out of the Indian subcontinent, and being told to the world."

Their one-line vision was ready, but they did not decide on the format of the content. They did not want to be restricted by format or by platform. The aim was to build the skill and ability to tell incredible stories from India in whatever format works best.

The space story was best told as an audio podcast because of difficulty in the recreation of the past. Similarly, they made other podcasts that were difficult to adapt in a video format. The first project they started was fiftytwo.in - A long-form written publication where a story is published every week from India. Some of these stories later got adapted to audio-visual formats.

Creating Podcasts and eventually Mission ISRO

When Gaurav and his colleagues started podcasting in India was still very new, and it still is hasn't taken off. To a large extent, the field was dominated by conversational podcasts where many people came together to discuss something. ATS studios wanted to tell narrative stories which are well-researched. Fortunately, the month they started, someone put them in contact with Spotify, India. Spotify wanted to do a podcast, stars aligned themselves.

ATS went and pitched 30-40 ideas. The first one which saw the light of the Sun was Special Mission. Special Mission is truly special. Gul Panag narrates untold stories from the Indian Armed Forces in Hindi. Then came another podcast named Maha Bharat, with Dhruv Rathee. Here, the idea was to help Indians understand India through simple civics lessons. What does President do? What is RBI's role in controlling inflation? These are some of the questions answered. It is an ongoing podcast with 50 episodes when I wrote this article.

Finally, the third podcast, Mission ISRO, was made. Gaurav had this idea of telling a space story. He had read an article regarding the all-women team involved in Mars Orbiter Mission, and then there is a podcast named 13 minutes to the moon narrating the stories from Apollo 13. All these inspired him towards telling the story of ISRO, and Spotify agreed.

Meanwhile, Sidin Vadukut, co-founder and CEO of the company, roped in Harsha Bhogle. He knew Harsha from Twitter and reached out to him with the idea. It turns out, Harsha was looking for some non-cricket project at the time. He was really excited and came onboard. It all fell together, just like the serendipitous story of ISRO.

Anecdotes of an Aerospace Nerd

Mission ISRO with Harsha Bhogle: The Serendipitous Story of Indian Space History

Welcome to the review of the Spotify Original Series: Mission ISRO with Harsha Bhogle. Chandrayaan-1 and Mangalyaan missions put India's flag on the Moon and around Mars. Both were ISRO's maiden attempts and both were successful. While they started a new chapter in India's space program. Suddenly, ISRO began to be known by the common man. In 2019, Chandr…

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6 years ago · Aerospace Nerd

Researching the Story

I have tried my best to research the story of ISRO. There are a few books, but apart from that, there is nothing. Gaurav credits Archana Nathan for the research. Archana, who's also the writer of the series, did a project with ATS studios, after which she joined as a full-time employee. She started working on Maha Bharat and later researched and interviewed a bunch of people for Mission ISRO. A lot of scientists agreed. Asif Siddiqui, a space historian, proved quite helpful. Amruta Shah had written the biography of Dr Sarabhai. All these resources were quite useful.

Alongside the research, ATS studios roped in a few screenplay writers. There was Devaiah Bopanna, who is a co-founder. He had been a comedy writer and advertising copywriter in the past. This team of writers helped structure the linear story of ISRO. You cannot just tell a story as this happened, and then this happened and then that. Listeners will lose interest. So, they had a masterclass in how you take a linear sequence of events and tell it as an engaging story.

Seasons of Mission ISRO

Season One narrates the story from the start of the Indian Space Programme to Rakesh Sharma's spaceflight. It is the struggle of how a country, which is just born literally. All warring territories, princely states agreed to work together and formed a democratic government. We have a constitution, and we have poverty, and we don't have food, and we have to figure out what the country is supposed to do. And then there's this audacious plan of putting together a space mission. So season one had this cool underdog theme to it. There's this country that is struggling. Three people come together with this ambitious plan and overcome many obstacles to reach from zero to one. While Rakesh Sharma's flight wasn't an ISRO mission, it is the most memorable moment for many Indians. So, an Indian in space saying "Saare Jahan Se Acha" became a nice culmination for Season One.

Season Two is much more trickier. There isn't that cool underdog theme. The reality is we tried a hundred things, of which some worked, and some did not. All this while ISRO kept growing in capacity and strength, but there weren't any cool, if you may, missions like Chandrayaan or MOM. How do you engagingly tell such a story? You once again cannot narrate linear series of events in progression. Gaurav promises that they managed to find some interesting connections. How they overcome these challenges will be heard starting 15th August. Season two is releasing on Independence Day, which also happens to be the anniversary of the formation of ISRO.

Theme Music

The Indian classical music mixed with tunes of satellite signals and a drum beat to go along, the theme has it all! Gaurav Vaz was a musician before this. He played bass guitarist in a folk band from Bangalore called Raghu Dixit Project. When the podcast idea came about, he reached out to his bandmate Raghu Dixit. He briefed Raghu about the vision of the podcast, the story of hope and ambition. They wanted the music to be a nice mix of Indian Classical because that's what you imagine playing in the 50s and 60s. The rest was Raghu Dixit's magic to give us such a fantastic tune.

A million more stories to be told

ISRO's story is 60 years old, but it took so long for someone to tell it to the mass audience. Gaurav believes that it took so long because there wasn't a good medium to do so until now. Suppose you think about the economics of making such a product. Such a big Bollywood project will incur a lot of costs, and to earn profits, the sensationalisation of the story is essential as it engages a larger audience.

Anecdotes of an Aerospace Nerd

Finally Watched Mission Mangal: A Review | Engaging but Inaccurate

I have been stalling to watch Mission Mangal ever since I watched the trailer on July 20th 2019. While I admire Bollywood to have finally made a movie on the Indian Space Programme, many mistakes and scientific inaccuracies in the trailer itself prevented me from taking the leap. Finally, after completing my Post Graduation, I decided to watch and write…

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6 years ago · Aerospace Nerd

Like ISRO's story, there are thousands and millions of such stories from India that deserve to be told. Now, with formats such as podcasts or docu-dramas on platforms like Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime are available, these stories will be told.

The upcoming podcast that ATS studios are working on is called 377, which is the story of how India overturned section 377. The law was used to harass and assault and discriminate against LGBTQ people in India. They have interviewed original petitioners and are hoping to release the podcast within 2-3 months.

Audience Response

With Mission ISRO, ATS Studios didn't dilute things. They keep the scientific terms while explaining them to the layman. If an episode demands 40 minutes, they give it the time in a world where 30-second tiktoks and reels are all the craze that is a big gamble. And they were rewarded for it. Gaurav mentions how the response from the audience has exceeded expectations. Even though the season ended months ago, he still gets tweets and emails from people about how much they love it, how they make their kids sit and listen to it as a family.

I interviewed Gaurav Vaz on 14th July 2021. I am thankful to him for finding time for the interview. You can listen to the raw version on the YouTube link below.

It is an exciting time for the space industry. Many private players have stepped in along with the government space agencies, making the competition higher than ever. It's not just the launch vehicle market with renowned names like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Rocket Lab, and more. Still, there are many emerging companies bound to exploring our neighbor Moon.

Google's Lunar X Prize began a race back in 2007, a race to become the first private lander on the Moon. Although sadly no one could win, it started a revolution. Private companies started looking towards Lunar Mission. Even NASA announced the Commercial Lunar Payload Servies (CLPS) program. Under CLPS, NASA contracts companies to transport scientific payloads on landers and rovers to the Moon. Companies can sell spots for other payloads as well, making a viable business solution.

Spacebit is a company developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions, working on space data analytics tools and robotic concepts of space exploration that include AI and advanced micro-robotics. Founded in 2014 by CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk, it is based in London, United Kingdom. Their first mission to the Moon, Asagumo, a unique rover, will piggyback onboard Astrobotic Technology Peregrine Lander with ULA (United Launch Alliance) as the launch provider.

Asagumo Rover - The Morning Spider

An animated video on Spacebit’s Instagram about the Asagumo rover.

Your first mission, the Asagumo rover, is unique in design, giving it unprecedented advantages to explore the lunar surface. Can you explain the ideology behind this design?

Usually, when one thinks of lunar rovers, an image of a wheeled vehicle comes to mind. This is hardly surprising since all existing rovers are based on this standard method of locomotion. By contrast, Spacebit's rover is reminiscent of a four-legged spider. It was named 'Asagumo' after the namesake of a Japanese proverb, the 'morning spider,' which is supposed to bring good luck. It seemed particularly apt since the rover is expected to reach its target early in the morning of the lunar day! Spacebit decided to buck the trend and develop a 'walking rover' because of its intended mission – the exploration of lunar lava tubes, which a traditional wheeled rover might find challenging. Lava tubes are subsurface tunnels formed by basaltic lava flows – on Earth and the Moon - and have long been proposed as viable locations for future lunar habitats, not least because they would offer some natural protection against space radiation. The novel design solution resulted in a relatively small rover, with a total deployed mass of just 1.3 kg. Although weight-saving for lunar vehicles has been fundamental in the design process since Apollo – for launch vehicle payload and cost reasons – modern micro- miniaturization technologies have allowed the development of a rover that weighs little more than that legendary yardstick, the 'bag of sugar'. The Asagumo rover is effectively a 'walking CubeSat' - cubical body (without legs) measures 10 cm on a side. Its first outing – dubbed 'Mission One' - is essentially a technology demonstration mission. One of the main operational requirements of the rover is for it to walk 10 meters - though, of course, the company hopes this notional target will be exceeded. The rover's payload includes a high-definition camera and a LIDAR (laser-based measuring device).

How would a spider-like walking rover enable exploration of Lunar Lava Tubes?

Many people were skeptical about the legs – and some of them still are. Even though we have already demonstrated it can move on the surface of Earth, we still have to prove that it can do the same on the Moon, but yes, there is some skepticism from the scientific community. But as a conceptual form, it's a very interesting design because it can allow us to basically step over some obstacles. It can allow us to go in [lava tubes] at a certain angle. It can also allow us to maybe even jump on the Moon in certain conditions. It's basically like a spider. If you look at what nature has created, you don't really see anything built with wheels, and we can go over hard terrain. It proves that sometimes you need legs to do certain specific tasks. If it's military combat and you need something to carry along a soldier, you can't really do that with wheels because of the terrain. The same applies to the Moon. There are two things here to note. First of all, we're doing this because we really want to go into a lava tube, and we believe it's one of the better designs to do so. Secondly, I decided to go for this challenge because it's a cool design, and I believe it's something different. It would be very obvious to go with the wheels as it's a much simpler way. Sometimes we do regret choosing the legs because it's so much more challenging than two wheels. But it's an exciting technology, and I believe that in our future on the Moon and other celestial bodies, you will have robots with wheels, and you will have robots with legs. That's why we have to be pioneers.

Second Wheeled Rover

Spacebit is also working on another larger rover, very different in design from Asagumo, that will be launched onboard Intuitive Machines, NOVA-C Lander, by SpaceX rocket, again as part of NASA's CLPS program. 

As I understand, there is another lunar rover mission in development. Can you tell us about that mission and how it is different from Asagumo?

Spacebit opted for wheels on its second lander because the company is eager to see how a different technology responds to the lunar surface. In addition, a wheeled rover is likely to require just two motors while Spacebit's Asagumo rover will require between six and 12 rovers to walk on four legs, he added. The company is continuing to expand its staff as it develops instruments for its lunar missions and the wheeled rover it plans to fly on the Intuitive Machines lander. Through sensors as well as still images and video, Spacebit plans to obtain detailed information on lunar regolith. While Apollo astronauts brought lunar regolith to Earth for analysis, a small rover moving across the lunar surface may obtain additional insight. We will be able to measure the lunar dust in its natural environment and see the electrostatic charge. For the second Nova-C lander launch, Spacebit is preparing a wheeled rover that will carry a small NASA scientific module. Both the wheeled and the walking rover are designed to help assess what kind of resources are available on the surface of the Moon, with the aim of providing support for the Artemis program. This will provide Spacebit with multiple opportunities to assess the makeup of the regolith (the equivalent of soil for other planets), which is its primary goal with these missions. The different rover designs will also mean it can better assess which is more amenable to the task.

Future Plans

Is Lunar Exploration the only future path for SpaceBit, or you plan to diversify in other fields?

Spacebit hopes to provide a service that will help kick-start the lunar economy. It intends to work on other robotic technologies and the propulsion systems that deliver them from lunar orbit to the surface and back. In doing so, the company is keen to drive and support what might be called a 'green lunar economy,' specifically offering more environmentally-friendly engineering solutions for propulsion and in-situ power generation. Indeed, the protection of the lunar environment as part of a sustainable lunar economy is paramount in the company's ethos. Also embedded in Spacebit's ethos is a determination to support science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) education. Spacebit believes that operating commercial space missions to the Moon can help democratize access to space. As such, the company is a true proponent of NewSpace and a disruptor of the 'status quo' in space, as well as having high aspirations.

Private participation in Lunar Exploration is increasing, but collaboration would the key to success. It is also evident in your partnerships with Astrobotics, SpaceX, and involvement in NASA's CLPS program. How has the experience been so far, and how do you envision these collaborations help the Lunar Exploration?

Partnerships have always been the foundation of success in space. The first 'flags' installed during the Apollo 11 mission were solar wind experiments developed in Switzerland. It is clear that the next step in space exploration will be more global, but it will also entail great opportunities for private and public collaboration. Companies such as Blue Origin and Space X are increasingly involved in NASA's projects. The more cooperation we gather to solve complex problems for humanity as a whole, the better our collective opportunities can grow in Space Exploration. In October 2020, Spacebit signed a contract for a second lunar delivery mission that will be launched onboard Intuitive Machines, NOVA-C Lander, by SpaceX rocket as part of NASA's CLPS program. So we will be working on two UK missions to the Moon next year with our microbot rover technologies. It is an exciting time for space exploration, particularly the Moon, and the great push towards accelerating private sector participation in lunar-based research and science under the Artemis Program. Spacebit is one of the very few commercial companies planning to fly on every NASA CLPS delivery on the market. Everything we do and achieve in space has an impact on our day-to-day lives here on Earth.

I thank CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk for taking time for the interview and also a big thanks to Maksym Shkurat, the Communications Manager at Spacebit for arranging it. 

Tell us about SAC, ISRO.

ISRO, the national space agency of India, is driven by its vision: Harness space technology for national development while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration. The responsibility to achieve this is shared between several centres, units, autonomous bodies of the Department of Space. Space Applications Centre (SAC) is one of the major ISRO centres engaged in the research, development, and demonstration of space technology applications in telecommunications, remote sensing, meteorology, and satellite navigation. It is responsible for realizing the payload of the satellite. In layman's terms, the payload is the instrument onboard the satellite, making the satellite capable of delivering applications. For example, an Earth observation satellite shall require optical cameras. SAC is responsible for delivering the camera and developing applications for generating meaningful maps from the data received from the satellite.

SAC is divided into several areas. Some areas specialize in delivering specific categories of payload instrumentation like satellite communication, navigation, remote sensing in different bands, etc., and their associated applications, while other areas are responsible to support them in achieving this. A group is engaged in designing and delivering human-rated systems for the Gaganyaan program in coordination with similar groups from other ISRO centres.

What is it like to work at SAC?

Typical office day begins at around 9 AM and no the day doesn't end at 5.30 pm! I am part of the team working on the Gaganyaan program. Since this is India's first human spaceflight mission, several systems are being designed for the first time. Along with the excitement, this brings a lot of responsibility. I feel privileged to have got an opportunity to work on the Gaganyaan program. I am sure, like me, you must have seen one of those NatGeo Specials - wherein you get to know about a project too ambitious and how people make it happen. Well, for me, this is a journey of similar sorts, and there is a long road to walk. That's what motivates me to work every day.     

At SAC, several employees have two assignments. The first is pertaining to the satellite mission like RISAT, Cartosat, etc., and the other is an R&D activity. The main project typically has well-defined deadlines, and it takes a good chunk of resources. The R&D activity may be a precursor to upcoming projects or could be completely exploratory. Employees are encouraged to write their own proposals for the R&D activities. Based on it, they are scrutinized and funded periodically. Over the past few months, I have enjoyed this double-stranded responsibility. It allows one to find a balance between implementation and research-driven activities. You also get an opportunity to work with and mentor student interns working on their final year projects. More info about internships could be found here.  

Apart from supporting enthusiastic employees in pursuing higher education, ISRO is also a strong champion of continuing education. It sponsors its employees for attending relevant training camps and participating in conferences. Annually, Professional Update Allowance is given to encourage employees to invest in their upskilling.

What was your experience with the recruitment process?

I was recruited through the campus placement process. There was one round of technical interview. My panel had two members. I passed on my resume, and as they were glancing through it, I told them about my experience at URSC during May-Jun 2016, during integration and flight model testing of Pratham. They asked me about the flight model tests then moved to my master's thesis. Over the next 20 minutes, there were discussions on a wide variety of topics - from how a wing generates lift to what Nusselt number is!

When and how did you start planning your career in aerospace engineering?

To frankly answer the question, I did not explicitly plan "a" particular engineering career. I started my journey at IITB in 2015, in the Chemical Engineering B.Tech batch. The branch selection was straightforward - a core age-old engineering vertical at IITB - nothing more, nothing less. I spent countless hours enjoying the Big, Bigger, Biggest, and Air Crash Investigation, and yet I wasn't particularly inclined on pursuing "a" specific domain of engineering. The plan then was to explore the much-celebrated culture of IITB and see the opportunities it would bring up. IITB offers an opportunity to first-year undergrads to change their branch based on academic performance at the end of the first year. I opted to change my program to B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. Again this decision was driven by the herd mentality.

Since the day I came on campus, I made sure to keep myself aware. IITB has a rich culture of Tech Teams. These are multidisciplinary student-run projects which are engaged in pursuing long-term engineering projects - Student Satellite Team, IITB Racing, AUV, etc. These teams have students from different disciplines working in a multi-tier structure. Some of these teams have been in IITB for over a decade now and have found a way to maintain continuity and, at the same time, have grown towards chasing more ambitious dreams.

I joined the Student Satellite Team in my first year. I wrote the test, followed by a two-week-long mini-project and a presentation for the electrical subsystem. Candidates can apply for any subsystem irrespective of their parent branches. The enthusiasm to work was the only prerequisite. When I joined the team, Pratham IITB's first student satellite, an ambitious project running since 2007, recently finished its qualification model tests at URSC, ISRO and was gearing up for the flight model tests in the summer of 2016. I got an opportunity to visit URSC and assist my seniors in the FM activities. This 5-week experience was a significant turning point in my life. I not only found a great project to work on but also came across amazing people who grew into a caring family over the years. Looking back, I realize that I enjoyed my journey in the satellite team not because of the project but rather the people in and around it.

In parallel to this, academics were not sidelined. It took me a while to adjust myself and actually enjoy learning through the coursework. IITB offers a rich variety of elective courses. Several classroom teachings made more sense when I saw them in action while working in the satellite team. At the end of my third year, I decided to convert to the B.Tech+M.Tech dual degree program. This time, it was a well-informed decision.

Towards the end of my stay at IITB, I had learned the following:

• I enjoyed working on the systems engineering part of the problems

• I realized that people and their interactions are the most complex component in realizing the project

Around this time, I realized that a project-based engineering profile, similar to what ISRO offers, was a good fit. So, no, I didn't explicitly plan an aerospace engineering career - I happen to be lucky that things aligned so well!

How was your experience of transitioning into the job life?

It is complicated! You usually move out to a new city, meet new people and get along with the job. At the same time, you are moving out of the campus. You are not going to see the same people you have been used to seeing every day for the past few years.

I realized that I had contemplated more about my own career, now that I actually have a job, than when I had, while in college. Maybe it's because there are days when you feel the grass is greener on the other side, and the road not taken might have been better. This is the first time in our lives when we find ourselves without concrete deadlines to look forward to. When you finish the 10th class, you are aware of what you would do in the next two years, and no matter what you do, the date for your 12th class exam is set. I no longer find myself in a similar construct of well-defined life milestones. I think this is one positive thing that has come by after I graduated from the bustling, hustling life at IITB - some time to think about myself, peacefully and without deadlines!

I thank Aniruddha to find time for this Space Talks article.

I want to Congratulate ISRO and all academic centers that were involved in developing the payloads. In the last five years, many other institutions and students have become associated with the AstroSat Mission. To mark this occasion of the fifth anniversary rather than pointing out the spacecraft characteristics, I decided to interview a few students of Prof Varun Bhalerao. They have worked with data from AstroSat. So here is the AstroSat Space Talks.

How did you get interested in Astronomy?

Aditi

It was back in 5th grade when we had recently moved to Mumbai, when my parents took my sister and me to Juhu Chaupati, Hanging Gardens amongst other places along with Nehru Planetarium. It was the first time that I saw a 'Sky show' in a 'Sky Theatre'. It felt like all the planets, stars and galaxies had come to life glowing and moving through the inside of the dome of the theatre. This experience left me enthralled. Although I didn't know the term "Astronomy", I have been interested in it since then.

Akash

For me, Astronomy was sort of a background interest that always bugged me, but I never did acknowledge it until my Bachelor's. But once I did, there came an outpour of overwhelming desire which kicked it off. I started the usual way, reading off Wikipedia, for the basics, regarding any topic that accompanied in the process, attending Krittika talks, and watching youtube lectures. After everything I did, a talk or some material that I read, I used to do this 'thing', where I used to compile all that could remember and understood into some form of text and then try to build on it. For me, Astronomy was something that gradually grew on me over the years.

Drishika

I have been interested in astronomy since childhood. I would listen to podcasts related to astronomy, actively take part in Astro quizzes in school and college and follow up on space-related news. However, it had always been a passive interest to me. I considered it a hobby that I can practice throughout my life, but not something I can pursue as a career. The fact that I am pursuing Mechanical Engineering and not Physics convinced me that I am not qualified for a career in astronomy. But, this changed when I met like-minded people through the astronomy club in my college. People were studying wide branches of engineering, from metallurgy to electronics, but all of them were passionate about astronomy and worked towards seriously pursuing it as a career. That gave me hope. Over the lockdown, I learnt more about astronomy and Physics and transformed what I previously considered a passive hobby into a serious career option. I joined Professor Bhalerao's research group after this, to get a practical introduction to the world of astrophysics.

Arvind

My first exposure to astronomy was in my first year at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, through Prof. Rajaram Nityananda, our classical mechanics professor. The idea of how astronomy began fascinated me - from a curiosity to look at the beautiful night sky to calculating and predicting the motion of planets and other celestial objects for both social and scientific purposes. I was then introduced to amateur astronomy through the regular stargazing sessions organised by the Jyotir Vidya Parisanstha (JVP) in Pune during my stay at IISER Pune. It is so impressive that we can learn so much about our universe with the tools of astronomy and learn more about physics that will be impossible to conduct in a lab.

Pranav

I was a convener in Krittika IITB for 2019-20, through which I got a rough idea of what astronomy people do in the institute. I also took a course under Prof. Bhalerao on Astrophysics, which was quite interesting, and exposed me to the sub-fields in astronomy. After asking seniors about what work is done in the research group, I got interested in working in the group. I joined the group in the summer of 2020.

Yashvi

The usual, it started with watching discovery channel shows like cosmos and reading about astronomy from encyclopedias when I was a kid. Then I started reading up more seriously in high school, and I kind of knew what I wanted a career in.

Sujay

Around 4th or 5th standard, I came across the book "Aakashashi Jadale Nate" by Prof. Narlikar (it is in Marathi, the English version is called A Cosmic Adventure). This sparked my interest in it, served as a great introduction to astronomy during my school years and inspired me about science in general. Later, when I decided that I want to have a research career in science, there was no other obvious choice than to research in Astronomy / Astrophysics.

Vedant

My first introduction to astronomy was at the Astronomy Olympiad Camp, just before I joined IIT. After that, the great community at Krittika kept me interested in the field. The first time I actually considered astronomy as a career was during a seminar about GW170817 at the Physics Department, which I attended randomly; the idea that we could find out the origin of heavy elements, by looking at just one object in the sky was probably what caught me. I didn't understand a lot then (possibly even now), but it was enough for me to become a proper Astro-nerd.

Gaurav

Unlike many, it was only when I was selected for the Indian National Astronomy Olympiad that I looked up at the night sky. That encounter with the world of astronomy lasted only for about a couple of months, restricted due to the engineering entrance exams (JEE). A few months later, when I joined IIT Bombay for my Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering, this interest started growing through the activities of the astronomy club (Krittika). Despite overloading with several other institute activities, I always used to find myself attending Krittika's events. While attending several of these talks that Krittika organised over two years, I had the chance to interact with many IITB seniors who were working on astrophysics research projects. To get a better first-hand idea in this field & its research, I sat through the introductory Astrophysics course taken by Prof. Vikram Rentala, and it immediately caught my eye due to its intuitive yet intricate nature.

It was around this period (towards the end of my sophomore year) that I realised my interest isn't just restricted to amateur astronomy. Still, instead, I wanted to explore this excellent field more. When the time came to choose between astronomy & other opportunities related to my branch, I decided to trust my instincts, step away from my major, and venture into the field of astronomy.

How did you get associated with Prof Varun Bhalerao?

Aditi

In my pursuit to learn more about Astronomy, I had started searching for professors under whom I could do a summer project and learn in a more formal environment. It was then when I came across Prof. Varun Bhalerao, and saw the fantastic work he is doing. I immediately sent across a mail to him expressing my interest. When he got back to me and offered me a project, it felt surreal.

Akash

During my freshie and sophomore years, Astronomy was always a 'side hobby' for me, whilst I concentrated on my majors (Aerospace engineering), with Astronomy gradually growing on me. But at the very start of my third year, I gave it a go and started writing to a couple of professors within IITB stating my interest and attaching the text that I compiled during the past two years. Fortunately, I received a quick reply from Prof. Bhalerao, who called me in. It was a short interview, in which he was essentially was trying to know if I could fit into his group and their style of work. And since I am writing this, I made it.

Drishika

I joined the AstroSat research group in early August this year. My job is to sift through the data captured by the Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) aboard AstroSat, process it, and identify gamma-ray burst (GRB) detections from the false positives. I also work on CIFT, which is a user-friendly interface that maintains a database of the GRB detections till date, and I improve upon and develop other diagnostic tools for the interface that is used to process the GRB data. In the future, I need to integrate a Bayesian blocks algorithm that is currently in development into the CIFT interface. In the long term, my job is to continue detecting GRBs and maintain the interface.

Arvind

I learnt about Dr.Varun Bhalerao from a fellow senior at IISER Pune, who had started working with him when Dr Bhalerao was a Vaidya-Raichaudhury Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune. I started working with Dr Bhalerao from my second year at IISER Pune on small summer/semester projects. I have always enjoyed working with Dr Bhalerao, who is very encouraging and helpful, ensuring a better learning experience.

Yashvi

I was looking to work on a small astronomy project during the winter vacation of the second year, and I went for some advice to my fac-ad Prof. Pradeep Sarin. He told me about a young professor at IUCAA working on building a new telescope, and he wrote Prof. Varun an email asking if he has any projects, to which Prof. Varun never replied :P But he ended up joining the IITB Physics department next summer, and I immediately sought him out. He was already advising too many students, but luckily for me, those were some of the senior astronomy club members like Pavan Hebbar who gave me an excellent informal recommendation (Prof. Varun asks his current students about any new student that approaches him). And that's how I started working with Astrosat CZTI data to look for GRBs.

Sujay

I was attending the Astronomy and Astrophysics summer school in IUCAA where Varun (he was a post-doc in IUCAA then) gave a lecture about building X-ray telescopes which I found very interesting. At that time I was interested in doing something which involved experiments as well as astronomy. The summer school was for one month only, but I had two more months of vacation so I contacted Varun if I can work on a research project with him which involved astronomy instrumentation. At that time he was toying with an idea to build a complete automated telescope (now a realised project called GROWTH India telescope in Hanle, Ladakh) to follow-up electromagnetic counterparts of gravitation waves. So when I spoke to him about my interest, he offered me a project which involved doing some prototype testing of automation using a small amateur telescope in IUCAA. I continued the work even after the summer vacation was over and throughout my 4th year at IISER Pune.

Gaurav

Throughout my initial 'starry-eyed' period with this field, I was always fascinated by the amount of science that these astronomers can do with so little information. This made me adore the wonderful instruments that astronomers use more than other subtopics of this subject. Right around the period when I decided to shift to astrophysics, Prof. Varun Bhalerao joined as a faculty at the Physics Department, and luckily, his research interests included astrophysical instrumentation. Being the head of the astronomy club in my third year, I was in touch with Varun for several club activities (Varun himself being one of the co-founders of Krittika). What started as planning for an ambitious idea of setting up a research-class telescope in the campus, soon turned into discussions about a possible research project & luckily he had the perfect opportunity for me to work on.

Over the past three years, working with him has allowed me to dive into a diverse set of projects that included instrumentation & has covered a wide range of the EM spectrum. The wonderful experience that I had in his research group was one of the significant factors that I decided to continue working with him for my PhD. Having himself transitioned from a non-Physics major to graduate studies in Astrophysics, Varun's immense experience, guidance & mentorship has tremendously helped me transition from a Mech Undergrad to a PhD student in Astrophysics.

Can you detail your contribution to Astrosat Research?

Aditi

I have been working on the data from CZTI aboard AstroSat for more than a year now. I have worked on the search for Gamma-Ray Bursts in CZTI data and in the development of a user-friendly interface along with some auxiliary tools to facilitate the search of GRBs. Recently my work has been more focused on searching for a broader range of fast transients and developing the associated interface, CZTI Interface for Fast Transients, or CIFT, as we like to call it. I am also working on detections of bursts from a magnetar SGR 1935+2154 which are unique because of their association with Fast Radio Bursts.

Akash

My contribution to research using AstroSat comes mainly from a hard X-ray instrument aboard AstroSat called the 'Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager' or colloquially known as 'CZTI'. I do X-ray follow-up of a wide range of transients, like Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), Gravitational Wave (GW), and Neutrino events. It is essential to say, I look for simultaneous X-ray emission from any astrophysical source that 'goes off' and 'lights up the sky' in the electromagnetic wave regime. In terms of its sensitivity, CZTI stands in level with some of the best X-ray detectors in the world, which makes it essentially a key instrument in studying X-ray emissions. It roughly detects a GRB a day and hopefully, it will for the next 5-10 years.

Arvind

For my Masters Thesis, I worked on "Mass Modeling and search for transients with AstroSat: Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI)" with Prof. Varun Bhalerao. CZTI is a wide-field imager and uses a Coded Aperture Mask technique to image the sky in Xray bands (10 keV – 100 keV). CZTI can also be used to study transients as it functions as an open detector for photon energies above 100 keV. The detected photons can therefore be a result of reprocessed photons incident on various components of the satellite. Many of these photon interactions cannot be estimated analytically. So, a simulated model (Mass Model) of the satellite was built to understand the response of the detector to various types and locations of sources with respect to the satellite. My thesis work discussed possible methods to compare simulated and real data, which can finally lead to independent localising any transients by CZTI.

Pranav

My work involves searching for Gamma-Ray Bursts, significantly implementing an algorithm called Bayesian Blocks to see if the detection of GRBs can be improved. The data used is mainly from the Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) onboard. We have currently three algorithms aimed at detecting GRBs, and this will hopefully be added to the pipeline. The algorithm generates custom time-binnings, based on the significance of the particular binning, and gives the optimal binning for a given time-series.

Yashvi

My work was focused on developing an automated pipeline to search for GRBs in CZTI data blindly. Until then, only GRBs reported by Fermi/Swift were searched for manually in CZTI data and reported on their GRB page. Since there was a lot of data, manually going through, it was not an option. So I employed a few statistics based algorithms to search for GRB peaks in CZTI light curves. I made the scripts to be completely automatic and also designed an interface to manage the saved GRB candidates. Through the pipeline, we found 40 new GRBs (in the archival data, I was able to process before I graduated). In comparison, there was an automated machine learning-based pipeline that was developed by IUCAA team which found ~20 GRBs in all CZTI data.

Sujay

I contributed to AstroSAT research in two different ways working on two different instruments. First, as part of my master's thesis, I worked on the Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter Detectors (LAXPC). An X-ray instrument (or telescope) like LAXPC doesn't respond to the incoming radiation at different energies in the same manner (e.g. lower energies are absorbed with greater efficiency). This is due to the intrinsic efficiency of the detectors and due to the extrinsic effects such as scattering due to instrument material. Hence to recover information about incident radiation from the detected data, it is essential to know the response of the instrument at different energies. My work involved simulating the instrument (using a software toolkit called GEANT4 which can simulate particle-matter interactions) and creating a response file which gives the response of LAXPC at different energies. This response file is essential for any kind of scientific analysis with LAXPC data. I carried out this work at LAXPC's Payload Operating Centre (POC) at RRI.

My second contribution involved modelling the entire AstroSAT !! The Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) onboard AstroSAT is a hard X-ray instrument primarily designed to observe known energetic sources such as X-ray binaries, X-ray Pulsar and has a relatively small field of view (about 20 square degrees). However, due to the increased penetration power of X-rays at energies above ~100 keV, the collimators (vertical slats above the detectors used to block radiation from off-axis angles) become increasingly transparent, and the CZTI detectors can detect X-ray radiation from almost the entire sky (i.e. CZTI becomes an all-sky detector above ~100 keV). Due to this all-sky coverage, CZTI can detect Gamma-Ray Bursts or GRBs (most energetic and bright explosions in the universe) incident from all possible directions. However, any radiation coming from a direction that is not in the field of view of CZTI interacts with the AstroSAT elements (e.g. other instruments or satellite body) as well as the CZTI structural elements before hitting the detectors. Hence to be able to study any GRB detected by the CZTI, it is important to know the response of these structural elements to the GRB radiation. A detailed chemical and geometrical model of AstoSAT (called "mass model" as the actual mass of the satellite is simulated) is needed to estimate this response. My work involved creating this mass model using GEANT4 so that response of the satellite material can be simulated for a GRB incident from any direction.

Furthermore, the mass model is also useful to localise a GRB detected by CZTI using satellite elements as a coded mask. This is possible because, for a GRB incident from a given direction, the satellite material cast a unique shadow onto the CZTI detectors. Hence by simulating such shadow patterns and correlating them with actual CZTI data, GRB localisation can be achieved.

Vedant

I work on data from CZTI, the Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager onboard AstroSat. High energy photons from astrophysical sources can essentially pass through the walls of CZTI and reach the detector, which is what happens during Gamma-Ray Bursts. This allows CZTI to detect bursts in a range of about 20-200 keV from several directions in the sky.

I work on two kinds of searches for GRBs with CZTI. One is a search using a few simple algorithms for peak detection (developed by Yashvi Sharma, B.Tech EP 2019) and scanning through candidate GRBs to vet them and select real GRBs. The other is a triggered search where we look at CZTI data at a particular time, when we know something interesting has happened, like a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), or a Neutrino event, or a Gravitational Wave detection. Searches for EMGW sources had been my main focus during the LIGO O3a, and O3b runs.

My work right now, along with Aditi Marathe (NITK), Drishika Nadella (NITK), Gaurav Waratkar (IITB), and Pranav Page (IITB), is based on streamlining this entire system, combining the two searches into a single interface, and developing CIFT: CZTI Interface for Fast Transients (cool name sponsored by me). In the future, this will allow for faster and smoother transient searches, and hopefully, help us sift (get it?) through the several hundred GBs of data from AstroSat CZTI to find those sweet GRBs.

Gaurav

There are several projects ongoing in our research group which are related to AstroSat (You can find all the projects that our group is working on at star-iitb.in). Here, I'll only summarise the projects where I have been involved over the past several months.

The Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager or CZTI, one of the five instruments onboard AstroSat, is an excellent Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) detector and has resulted in the detection of more than 300 GRBs since the launch of AstroSat in 2015. CZTI houses an array of 64 X-ray detectors that detect photons in the energy range of 20-200 keV. The large amount of data from CZTI makes manual searches for large spikes in the data (a key signature of GRBs) quite impractical.

To aid such searches, we are developing CIFT: CZTI Interface for Fast Transients, an interface that will control our automated pipelines to sift through the huge CZTI data hunting for transients. With several features like the ability to seamlessly integrate new different search algorithms as they are developed & facilitate the search for other transients through the same interface, CIFT will enable a much quicker turnaround in the search for GRBs as well as other transient sources like Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and the EM counterparts to Gravitational Wave sources.

To find even fainter/smaller real spikes of these GRBs, we have recently started a study on understanding the behaviour of the underlying noise in the CZTI data. This study has several long term implications. It will not only help in detecting very faint GRBs which otherwise our pipeline would have missed but also for constraining the emission models of other sources even when we do not detect the emission.

What are you currently working on?

Arvind

I am currently a PhD student at Texas Tech University, and I am working with Prof. Alessandra Corsi to study afterglow emission from gravitational wave sources and supernova remnants in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Yashvi

I am working on finding bright supernovae (apparent magnitude m < 19) through Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey, and particularly looking at ultra long-timescale supernovae.

Sujay

My current work (as part of a PhD) concerns simulation and performance estimation of a GRB monitor instrument called ECLAIRs. This wide-field hard X-ray coded-mask imager will fly on the upcoming Sino-French mission called SVOM. The mission is dedicated to the study of GRBs and high energy transients. ECLAIRs is the primary instrument responsible for the detection and localisation of GRBs (and other high energy transients). The detection and localisation will be done in real-time using an onboard trigger (an algorithm that searches for GRBs or transients in the ECLAIRs data).

Because ECLAIRs has a wide field of view (FOV), it experiences a high background level which has an astrophysical origin. Furthermore, this background is variable due to the orbital motion of the satellite. Such variation can have an impact on the sensitivity of the onboard trigger. My work involves simulating a data (which involves the background variation) representing real observing scenarios and assessing the impact on the GRB detection sensitivity of the onboard trigger. Another part involves the development of an offline trigger algorithm which will be used to search for additional transients and GRBs once the data is downloaded to the ground.

Some words about AstroSat

Congratulations to you all for this massive success and happy birthday AstroSat! Thanks to AstroSat for helping us see the universe in a new light (literally!). And a big thanks to you all for finding the time for this interview - AstroSat Space Talks.

What is Igniting Young Minds?

IYM is a platform to promote space and satellite education for every young mind that is for the entire student community from any school all around India. It involves a group of people with several years of experience in education ranging from people of education ministry, various school principals and young /talented space enthusiasts. IYM performs workshops, lectures on space and satellite for schools with distinguished speakers from multiple IITs, ISRO scientists and many such space experts.

Where did you get the idea? What is the motivation behind this?

We were used to giving lectures on satellites in various school and education institutes during college times. We wanted to keep that rolling, for us it might be a piece of interest, but for children, it is “The Need”. So yes on one of the similar discussion with Mr Ravi Shankar, Founder of IYM this initiative took birth.

IYM is imbibed with the dreams of Dr Kalam and proudly contributes to his vision of developing the nation by building the youth of INDIA, so yes, that is the motivation.

What all do you plan to do under IYM? And is there anything concrete which we may see within the next few weeks?

IYM started with space education is now also involved in various activities done by students like plantation (we recently organized a “selfie with the plant” initiative where children have to plant a new tree and share their happiness in terms of selfies), we are also in the process of promoting education kits to the needy children with the help of fund collection from workshops.

Yes, definitely we have workshops lined up for next 5 Saturday and Sundays in various states like Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and many more are in the process of finalization.

How did you get interested in Space/ Aerospace yourself?

As I tell every student that the dream which I saw in my childhood, of touching the sky and roaming around the whole world, got fulfilled by “Pratham” the student satellite of IIT Bombay. The remarkable project where I was fortunate enough to have the launch of “Pratham” with ISRO PSLV in my tenure as the team leader. This step of rocket science actually brought me close to space and satellite systems. And yes, providing that opportunity to many more students like me is now the IYM interest.

Can you describe the experience of Making and Launching a satellite?

Finally, what are the future goals of IYM?

Igniting Young Minds is currently connecting all such space experts with every young mind, and it is on track to cover all the states as early as possible with a future aim to build a space school in India.

Thank You Ratnesh Mishra for finding the time. Keep Igniting Young Minds to take up space science and technology.

• Co-Founder: GTarang Energy Solutions

• President: Igniting Young Minds

So let us dive into today's Monday Mentoring and Space Talks article.

What has been your journey up till joining IIT? Especially, How you got interested in Aerospace?

Brought up in a family of engineers, I was always attracted to science and math in my school days. I had a particular fascination with aircraft, something about the gracefulness with which aircraft flew captivated me. While learning fundamental physics during JEE prep, I started to realize just how complicated even a simple twin-seater aircraft is, and my appreciation for the aviation industry was amplified. I also feel that AE is all about pushing the frontiers of engineering -- whether it be building the next-gen fuel-efficient aircraft, or a new spacecraft which enables new space missions. That's what engineering is all about for me -- using science and technology for the benefit of humankind.

How was your journey at IIT Bombay? Were those expectations fulfilled?

Most definitely. As I already knew I wanted to be in AE, I was very happy to have been admitted into the IITB-AE program. All the Professors were very knowledgeable, and I enjoyed every class. I feel some of the lab courses could be better; some of the experiments were quite difficult to relate to the theoretical coursework. I also really appreciate how supportive the faculty were; they were always available to advise whenever I needed it. IITB-AE set me up very well for my higher studies.

You interned at the Gulfstream Aerospace twice, what was your job profile?

My two internships at Gulfstream were 3 years apart, the first was during IIT years, and the other during my MS at Georgia Tech. My first internship was in their manufacturing facility for the G650 aircraft. Although I can't say I had any prior experience for that internship, it was a great experience working at a production facility and observing up close the complete process of aircraft manufacture. We learn about aircraft design theory as our capstone AE course in undergrad, but there's so much more than happens downstream of that design. That first intern gave me that exposure and appreciation, which I'm grateful for. It's a facet of AE which many AE graduates probably never get to experience.

My second intern at Gulfstream was at the Acoustics division, working on noise certification for the G500 which was under testing and certification at that time. A large part of my intern was developing tools to assist in the noise certification test flights, and I also got the opportunity to go to the actual test site for fieldwork as well.

Masters and PhD experiences at Georgia Tech. Specifically, what is your field of study? and What are you currently working on?

Currently, I'm at Georgia Tech for an MS in CSE and PhD in AE. My primary area of research is in the environmental effects of civil aviation, particular noise mitigation. I've worked on projects under the ASCENT program, which is a Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment. I'm working on new methods to improve conventional noise modelling tools, and on optimization of flight trajectories to reduce their environmental impact (green aviation).

Future plans and a key takeaway for recent aerospace graduates.

Right now, I'm focused on my PhD work and hopefully graduating in another year. With the current Covid-19 situation, it's hard to make any kind of definitive plan as it is impossible to predict what the aerospace industry will look like even a few months into the future. After graduation, I'd like to work in a research role, either at a government entity or in industry.

For recent graduates, congratulations! No matter where you're headed now, try to make the best of your opportunities. Even though you may not realize it now, IITB has equipped you with the skills needed to succeed in whatever you do (there's always more things to learn though). We can't always control the hand we're dealt, but we can try to play the hand optimally. Life speeds by once you're settled into your new routine, make an effort to stay in touch with the friends you made on campus!

Thank You Ameya Behere for finding the time

Name: Ameya Behere

Currently: Graduate Student at Georgia Institute of Technology pursuing Green Aviation Research

Work Experience: Gulfstream Aerospace Internships and FAA Tech Center Internship

Earlier Education: IIT Bombay

What is life? What are its origins? Is there any extraterrestrial life? Astrobiology tries to answer all these questions. NASA defines it as the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the Universe. The upcoming field of space science, Astrobiology, has gained a lot of engagement and enthusiasm. Amity Centre of Excellence in Astrobiology (ACoeA) is one of the few research centres of Astrobiology in India. I got the opportunity to ask a few questions to Dr Siddharth Pandey, the head of the Centre of Excellence in Astrobiology at Amity University. So here is the latest Space Talks article:

How did you get interested in Aerospace Engineering?

I was always interested in flying objects and had a distant interest in Space as well. But I was only able to realize this interest after coming across the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster in 2003 where seven astronauts lost their lives as they were returning from Space. That news coverage shook me up and made me curious to read more about people who sacrifice their lives for humanity, not just for themselves or their countries. The challenge and adventure in the field attracted me to decide at the age of 14 that I wanted to take up Aerospace Engineering.

You have worked in the space domain at various places such as the USA, Netherlands, Australia and India. How would you compare these experiences?

Very different and informative experiences unique to each region. I studied in India and Netherlands and worked in the US, Australia was again a combination of research experience in University and research organizations. I find it hard to compare them as there is no context for the comparison, so I do not have a preference, for example, for a location. They all added in their own way. The work culture is of course very different in these regions, and one learns a lot on maintaining a work-life balance in Australia, punctuality in Netherlands, passion and ambition in the US and the importance of maintaining old and new work relationships in India.

You decided to come back to India and head the Centre of Excellence in Astrobiology at Amity. What was your thought process behind the decision?

To be honest, I had not thought it through. Yes, I indeed wanted to help in the establishment of the centre. Still, I was on course for undertaking more research experience in Australia and the US before returning to India after another 4-5 years outside. However, life takes you on a journey :) I met my wife, and we got married. She worked in Mumbai, and I have loved this city, was born here and have spent 13 collective years here, including a great stint at IIT Bombay. So once I was offered a position by Amity University Mumbai to establish the centre, I realized this was a very unique opportunity to set up something much needed at an early stage in my career. So I took it up! It also gave me a chance to strengthen my network in India, which I never got much of an opportunity to do since I left without having worked here in 2011.

In less than two years since starting leading the Astrobiology group, you have made tremendous progress. There is one payload ready to launch, as I remember. There have been tie-ups with NASA. Online astrobiology course with a lot of enrollment. Please tell us about the journey of these two years.

It has not been easy, but I have been very very fortunate to receive prompt support and vision from Honourable Chancellor of my University, Dr Aseem Chauhan, who is a rare person who truly understands the value of Astrobiology, Space Exploration and the importance of research and collaboration for the education sector in India. This attribute is quite rare, and I am truly very fortunate to have his confidence and everything we do. The University has given me the independence and stability to establish the focus areas in Research, Education and Events.

While we currently are involved in writing proposal grants, building relationships and drawing MoUs with our partners in Industry, Academia and Government. We have been able to undertake several projects such as the Amity Space Biology Experiment-1 which will be the first space biology experiment from India, that has been selected to fly as part of the Satellize payload on ISRO PSLV C49 PS4 Platform. We have students from Engineering and Biotechnology who are engaged in several research projects as part of their final year thesis, summer internships and research projects.

I have received a lot of enthusiastic support from several departments within ISRO on the work we are shaping up to establish, from members within NASA, Universities such as Open University UK, UNSW Australia, University of Edinburgh and organizations such as Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and Mars Society Australia. I have had 3 Adjunct faculty members from these organizations who have visited us on multiple occasions (3 times last year) to help run our workshops and establish the centre. In addition, I have had one full-time faculty who has been selected for a prestigious postdoc position at Max Planck Institute in Germany and currently, we are in the process of selecting his replacement.

During COVID times, we have made the most of the opportunity of finding researchers and students at home and launched our first Online Astrobiology Certificate Course that was recently promoted by NASA Astrobiology Program among other prestigious organizations. We got a tremendous response with 795 sign-ups at the time of the deadline, from 53 countries on six continents. This is truly the largest and most diverse class of Astrobiology students ever in our observation. We might be home, but education and learning and community building will not stop.

Finally, what are your future plans and can you give some words of advice to students starting their research journey in Astrobiology in India?

I envision our centre to take shape and have ongoing projects in the field of Early Mars Analogue studies, Space Biology, Planetary surface drilling and conduct experiments in laboratories, analogue environments and low Earth orbit. We are positioning ourselves to be the leading centre in India to support the Astrobiology community and ISRO towards the development of Astrobiology missions and the sustained exploration of Astrobiology relevant analogue sites in India.

Advice for students: Subscribe to our website: www.acoea.com and attend upcoming webinars and courses as and when they come. Choose subjects that you are most interested in and try and read as much as you like, have a strong fundamental education (undergraduate degree) in that area and then look to specialize further in an astrobiology relevant topic (MS, PhD), try to attend workshops, conferences and network with scientists of the field and stay polite, persistent, observant and optimistic. These are amazing times with missions to exciting worlds being launched in the next 5-20 years. Keep the fire burning!

I would like to thank Dr Siddharth Pandey for taking the time for this Space Talks Article on Leading Astrobiology in India. About Siddharth:

Dr Siddharth Pandey is the Head of Amity Space Centre and the Centre of Excellence in Astrobiology at Amity University India. As a part of this, he is leading an initiative to establish India's first centre that will work towards studying the origins and distribution of life in the Universe. Prior to this, he has experience in building sample collection instruments for Mars and Venus surface missions while working at NASA Ames, USA. He received the NASA Spaceflight Awareness Team Award and NASA Ames Technology Transfer Award for two successful spaceflight experiments onboard the International Space Station and co-owns a registered NASA patent.

Siddharth has also led international expeditions to explore extreme environments in Ladakh and Lonar crater, Maharashtra as sites to test experiments and systems for Mars exploration. He is a Director with the Mars Society Australia and is actively involved in planning analogue field projects in India and Australia. He has been engaged in education and public outreach activities and is motivated to use Space as a tool to spread awareness, social consciousness and inclusiveness within our communities.

He holds MS in Space Systems Engineering from TU Delft, Netherlands and BTech in Aerospace Engineering from Amity University, India.

Professor Varun Bhalerao, the principal investigator of Daksha, gave a recent talk on the topic, ’Daksha: Finding High Energy Emissions from Gravitational Wave sources’. Attending the lecture, I realised that Daksha and its science should be shared. So, here is an article based on the talk given by Professor Varun.

Gravitational Waves Explained

What are Gravitational Waves?

We can understand the gravitational force of attraction. There is a whole different way of looking Gravitation: a bend in the fabric of space-time. I would also make use of the PhD comics to illuminate Gravitational waves, as done by Professor Bhalerao.

The bend in the space-time results in orbits and objects being pushed towards each other. Gravitational Waves are nothing but ripples in this fabric of space-time. When masses accelerate, they change the distortions of space which results in the ripples.

Observing Gravitational Waves

As gravitational waves distort the space between two objects, we need to measure the change in distances. The catch is that our regular length measuring devices will also elongate/shorten. Therefore, our scales are rendered useless. In comes the advanced gravitational wave detectors, LIGO and Virgo.

LIGO and Virgo use laser beams to calculate the time light takes to transfer between two points. Speed of light is fixed for a medium. Therefore, as a gravitational wave travels the distance between the two points change, hence changing the time of travel for the Laser.

EM counterpart

Gravitational Waves are vital as they provide valuable data regarding the masses, spins and other geometric properties of the objects involved. But the information is incomplete without the Electromagnetic counterpart. Because EM waves can be detected through telescopes, we can arrive at precise locations of the mergers. Not only that, but the wide range of EM spectrum also provides much more in-depth insights into the Astrophysics of the source. Therefore, it is essential to be able to observe both GW and EM for a source to have a complete astrophysical picture.

GW170817

During the second run, LIGO made the first direct detection of gravitational waves from merging neutron stars. Almost 1.3 seconds later, a burst of gamma rays was detected by FERMI and INTEGRAL satellite.

Observing Frenzy

All around the world, even in Antarctica, terrestrial telescopes observed the source for many days. Therefore, this neutron star merger was seen by 70 observatories in all the 7 continents and space. Observations were made across all EM spectrums, and a joint paper with 3500 authors from about 1000 different institutes was published. And it was not easy to make these observations. The source was quite near to the sun, so the optical telescopes could only observe at sunset.

The Observations in EM Spectrum

Terrestrial telescopes observed GW170817 in the whole of the Electro-magnetic Spectrum including Radio, UV, Optimal and IR waves. While the space telescopes detected Gamma and X-Ray bursts. Not just optimal photometry, spectroscopy of the source was also done. The observations made are as follows:

• The source became brighter with time (100 days after the merger) in the radio frequencies.

• For UV waves, it decayed very swiftly (within 1-2 days). While for optical and infrared, the rise could be observed, followed by slow decay.

• According to spectroscopy, the object cooled very fast. The peak temperature decayed to longer wavelengths.

The phenomenon was explained using a consistent simple physics-based model: Synchroton Radiation.

Lessons Learnt

Since the GW170817 observation, we have not been able to observer another neutron star merger along with the EM counterpart. The reasons generally point to the larger distances and more 90% probability area for the third observation run of LIGO. Therefore, we have learnt the following lessons based on GW170817 and O3.

1. Look at the sky at all times. (AstroSat missed the GW170817 by few minutes)

2. Need 10x higher sensitivity as compared to current missions. (Fainter and farther sources)

3. Wide Spectral Band (GW170817 Gamma-Ray Burst had very high error bars due to less spectral range)

Daksha Space Mission

Daksha is a proposed space mission for detecting high energy counterparts to gravitational wave sources. It will be an order of magnitude more sensitive than any existing mission.

Specifications

• Energy range: 1 keV to > 1 MeV

• Effective area (2 satellites): ~1700 cm2, 100 keV

• Source localisation: better than 10°

• Sensitivity: Better than 3 x 10^-8 ergs/cm2/sec (20-200 keV)

• Detectors used:

  • Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) {Used in Chandrayaan 2 Orbiter}

  • Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) {Used in AstroSat}

  • Scintillators (NaI + SiPM)

With the above specifications Daksha will be an order of magnitude higher in terms of energy range and total active area than current space missions such as FERMI.

As compared to future missions, there is one Chinese mission named GECAM. Daksha will be having a factor of 3 higher sensitivity than GECAM. And there is one American mission, still in very early phases stated for 2030, while Daksha is planned for a faster timeline.

Current Status

Daksha is a joint mission with institutes across India coming together under the umbrella of IIT Bombay. Scientists and teams from PRL, TIFR, IUCAA, RRI, ISRO and IIT Bombay are currently working on the building a proof-of-concept (POC) with the provided seed funding. They are working on the simulations to prove future science along with building the detectors and thermal design of the satellite.

Hopefully, the POC will be complete soon, and Daksha will become an approved ISRO mission.

You can attend the full talk by Professor Varun Bhalerao at the YouTube link below.

How did you get interested in Electronics?

In 12th grade, I had computer science as a subject. Wherein there were lessons about micro-controllers and microprocessors. We had topics for programming them and understanding their architecture. Writing programs for these excited me.

Apart from that, I have always been a guy who wanted to fly or at least make things than can fly. So initially, when I came across the concept of drones (around 10th grade), I always wondered how I could make one for me to capture photos and how I can make one cheap. That brought me closer to the topics of Radio Frequencies (RF), link budgets. I got fascinated with making own transceivers. That combined with the ability to code for microcontrollers opened a new door of thinking for me towards RF and embedded electronics.

What is the New Leap Initiative? And what is your story of starting it?

So as I was into rf and embedded devices since 12th grade which at a point took me towards high altitude balloons which is one of the activity regularly pursued by a substantial chunk of Ham(s) around the world. So when I got into college, I started to talk about those things with people. Only to be told by people that you are not in a Premier Institute and all these sophisticated technologies are to be done by them, and you just concentrate on learning to code and prepare your profile for getting a corporate job.

However, a few months in college there was a Technical festival at our college's other branch in Vidyavihar. There was an ISRO exhibition where a few ISRO scientists were giving talks. While roaming around with two friends, I pointed out to model of a satellite and said with some efforts you can make a small one like this in your backyard and launch. One friend found the notion ridiculous, but Supriya Bhide, who is the co-founder of the team, believed in what I said. So charged up by the fact that someone finally believed in something I have dreamt, I went on to ask the present ISRO scientist, "What will it take to launch a satellite and do we have to be from premier institutes to do so?" He replied it completely depends on the innovation of your proposal, and you can always innovate with suitable study and work.

Thus started our journey, we formed a small group of students and went to a faculty. However, this group dissolved in a few days and yet again, I lost my belief in the dream. It was only in the next sem when we went for a field visit to GMRT, Pune that I regained my confidence. I asked another faculty, Dr Umesh Shinde, who was one of the most supportive faculty members and a person who loved science and technological development of students from the bottom of his heart. The very same day he took me to principal sir to pitch the idea where we pitched an initiative to take a leap in a new era for our college with this big platform and named it "New Leap Initiative". And so it started.

Tell us about your experience at LPSC for the Touch the Jovian Moon Contest.

So around eight months since New Leap Initiative started, no one was taking team seriously as we were delivering nothing on the ground. At that time it was all about ideation and few reviews here and there. In comes a mail from principal sir regarding competition by ISRO which called for proposals for lander mission to Jupiter's moon. At that time, due to its glamour of being associated with ISRO, everyone jumped to register the names for being in the core team for the contest, and we had to choose only six. Once the team was selected, there was no progress and initiative. There were just some chats about writing this and that in the report, but no one did. However, I saw this as the first and last opportunity to make people realise the seriousness of the work we were doing in our team.

• First Skype Presentation to ISRO

• VSSC, ISRO Guest House

• Touch the Jovian Moon Trophy

• At the Award Ceremony

I took it to myself to ideate, write and edit the report over next five sleepless night (which were supposed to be preparation leave for our impending exams where I failed the first one). When completed, we sent it with no big hopes of it being selected. Surprisingly, we were chosen in the top 10. We went through three progress reviews with ISRO-LPSC team over skype for the next three months; by this time team had become serious and the institute started taking us seriously. This was was kind of first win in itself.

Finally, we got into the top 5 and were called to LPSC, where we were given a tour and insight into the testing and development of thrusters and fuels. We were given a tour of VSSC and the church from where ISRO launched the first rocket. And finally, we gave our presentation and surprisingly won the contest. But yeah that was a great journey, got us useful contacts, cleared a lot of basics, gave us a perspective in how things are supposed to be developed and standards that are followed.

What is in future for the team and you personally?

The team is working on finalising the first satellite which is a 2P PocketQube standard satellite called "BeliefSat" (You might have already understood the reason for its name from other answers since its journey was the one of belief). The team is also working with Databyte Services and Systems and Indian Meteorological department for developing Radiosondes which are required for Upper air temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speed studies by Met department and different airlines. Soon that would also be launched.

For me, I have joined Satellize (previously known as Exseedspace, the first private satellite launch company from India) with a legendary HAM Farhan Ashar as my boss, who has similar dreams RF and making objects that go up.

A takeaway for Indian students interested in Ham Radio and Electronics in general

Right now, the scenario in general is either we are telling a significant portion of our engineers that they can't do big things as they are not in the premier institute and thus killing their dreams. Or we are fuelling some of them on misguided tracks by praising mediocre work or show business. I think its time for students to start believing in themselves, with the following sentence imbibed in mind and do real research and science and not show business.

"The fact that others have done it is proof that you can do it too, however, the fact that others haven't tried it doesn't mean you shouldn't too. Rather than waiting, show it can be done".

Rohit with Yash Sanghvi (Former Project Manager of IITBSSP)

A big thanks to Rohit to share his story with our fellow nerds.

What has been your journey up till joining IIST? Especially How you got interested in Aerospace? Your motivation towards Aerospace?

I did my schooling in a village in Kannur district of Kerala and one year of entrance coaching to crack the JEE exams before joining IIST. The school days were regular and cheerful. During my school days, I read Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's autobiography "Wings of fire". The book motivated me a lot. His life inspired me, and I became interested in ISRO. The success of ISRO through missions like Chandrayan and Mangalyaan during that period created a curiosity in me.

The journey at IIST. Were those expectations fulfilled?

IIST life was an awesome experience. I got to study aerospace subjects and develop skills in different fields of engineering as well. The professors were all excellent and also the college mates. I was also involved in extracurricular activities like Arts fest, Basketball etc. Aerospace mechanisms and space robotics were my favourite subjects at IIST.

How did you land at ISRO?

The Department of Space, Government of India, sponsors IIST. So each year ISRO absorbs students directly from IIST, that's how I joined VSSC, ISRO.

What are your job profile and daily schedule at work?

I am working as a Scientist/Engineer -‘SC' at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC) Thiruvananthapuram. I work in the Aerospace mechanisms group that is involved in developing mechanisms related to launch vehicles. My work schedule is from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday during regular days. When there are launch campaigns, there may be a need to do overtime as well.

A key takeaway from undergraduate life

Enjoy your learning and be sincere. Try to develop an interest in a few subjects and build expertise in that. Also, don't always spend time studying. There should be time for other games and relaxation as well. But when you are working or studying, give your hundred per cent into it. This way, you will succeed easily.

Ashish Tomy

A big thanks to Ashish to share his story with our fellow nerds.

Check out all the other Guest Articles in the Space Talks Series.

How did you get interested in Aerospace?

Well, that's an interesting story. My life up till now has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride. You might think, most of us dream of becoming pilots or astronauts, right? Losing partial vision in an accident way back in senior kg, eliminated this case once and for all.

I wasn't born in a very privileged family, either. However, the environment I got from home did not stop me from aiming for big things. My dad, who was an ordinary government employee at that time, did his best to provide us with happiness in the smallest of the things he could find.

Many-a-times he used to take me on a bike ride from our home (in Kalyan) to his office (in Mumbai). Once, I was fascinated at a particular spot on the highway. An aircraft went across and landed on the other side. Perceiving my curiosity, my dad started taking me on that route more often. And, hence my aerospace journey started. Whenever I go back home, I still look towards the sky at that very spot, and the only difference is, I can identify every aircraft with the airline livery.

What is your story of becoming a part of thrustMIT?

When I joined Manipal in 2016, none of the hundreds of clubs and student projects caught my eye. However, in October, some of the seniors started a new student project for enthusiast rocket scientists named thrustMIT.

The team, when started, was a fresh idea among all the AI/robotics fandom going around. I joined the team as a junior in my first year and later represented the university and country to SpacePort America Cup 2018 along with my teammates.

Things were difficult, I mean, very difficult. Lack of generous funding and sponsorships. Little to no support given to a bunch of teenagers aiming to build a rocket. Having less idea of the technicalities are just the tip of the iceberg. Lots of fights, curses, sleepless nights with tons of rocket motor tests and failures coupled with long hours of brainstorming eventually, made us build our first rocket for the competitive arena, named VYOM.

We did complete our SpacePort America 2018 campaign. However, a series of health issues made me hang my gloves just after returning from the competition.

Take us through the journey of launching a rocket at Spaceport America Cup 2018.

The most challenging part when it comes to launching a rocket in America is not the rocket itself, but the visa required to travel to America. Because rocket technology comes under the TAL: Technologically Alert List, we had to submit our CV and past ten years of travel history.

Thankfully we got discounts on our stay and permissions to build rockets in the hotel room or any common area like the lobby, courtesy competition sponsors. Since we had to get out rockets ready for inspection and podium presentation, sleep was not an option. Eventually, we built the rocket and successfully presented it on the first day, and got the launch clearance certificate from the judges. Though, a minor error in the avionics system delayed our launch to the third day.

I remember, during Vyom's flight, the pride I experienced when the commentator was saying our college name and country name. The rocket launch was more than satisfactory, but we suffered from broken fin mid-air, causing the rocket to change its trajectory. However, the parachute was deployed successfully, and we managed to recover it on time and got back the fallen soldier back home.

Other than our launch, the entire launch site gave us a plethora of options from nearly everything an aerospace student could ask for!

In the hot, hellish desert launch site, we got plenty of isotonic drinks and space-food from sponsors. Not to forget, the endless interaction I had with scientists and employees of NASA, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Aerojet Rocketdyne etc. It was indeed a sight to behold and an adventure worth a lifetime.

You interned at the ARRC Taiwan. Generally, students prefer space fairing nations like the USA or countries in Europe. How was this experience?

Of course, I did have the USA and Europe in mind. Having the experience of travelling to America in 2018, I thought of applying for Europe and Asia in 2019. High living costs coupled with limited funding opportunities in Europe and my inclination to Asian culture made me choose Japan and Taiwan as my final choices. I ended up getting in both of them.

The best opportunity I had was Advanced Rocket Research Centre (ARRC), an autonomous rocket research facility headed by Dr Jong-Shinn Wu in National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. My professor himself is very well known in the area of Hybrid Rocket Research. Taiwan, as a country, has a vast indigenous industry. Almost one of every five electronics companies is of a Taiwanese origin. Hence I took the risk, and I did not regret it. I had the opportunity to work on the world's first orbital hybrid rocket capable of thrust vectoring. I was also a part of their weekly rocket tests.

I did struggle with language and food, but after a while, it felt natural. Whichever restaurant I used to go, the restaurant owners always used to ask my Taiwanese lab-mates about me, if I was enjoying Taiwan, if I was comfortable etc. I was impressed with this mutual caring and consideration to a foreigner. People had a lot of social and civic responsibility.

In India, we generally glorify the west. Still, my experience in Taiwan made me embrace my Asian origins and stand by my motto; Technology meets culture, Art meets Science.

A takeaway for Indian students interested Rocketry and Aerospace in general.

Currently, I'm doing my final year thesis project at the National University of Singapore. Despite having worked on rockets throughout my academic life, I'm designing and building a solar-powered aircraft. Research now is very multidisciplinary and favours people who can be flexible. Try to learn as much as you can. Knowledge never goes waste.

I want to tell all the aerospace aspirants that if someone says, "There is no Scope", or "Job market is limited" do not get disheartened. If you take Aerospace the way it should be taken, then you will automatically discover scope. If someone intimidates you in the name of money, remember this quote from the movie The Wind Rises "Airplanes are not tools of war. They are not for making money. Aeroplanes are beautiful dreams, and engineers turn dreams into reality."

It isn't easy, mentally, and physically taxing, but the result that you'll get will be on a much larger scale. And even if you don't get the result you desire, the journey on your way to the result is worth a lifetime.

Saurabh with Prof Jong-Shinn Wu

A big thanks to Saurabh to share his story with our fellow nerds.

What has been your journey up till joining IIT?

I’ve always been a math enthusiast, since as long as I can remember. No other subject back in school demanded one to think, and that was what stood out about math. My school life was pretty standard - go to school, do homework, play football, watch tv and sleep. It was in 8th grade when, like many of my IIT friends, I joined an IIT foundation class. I had no idea what an IIT was at the time, and the foundation course was particularly famous for advanced mathematics. I was hooked within weeks, and in 9th grade, I cleared RMO and appeared for INMO. Did the same in 10th grade too. That’s when the math fairy tale had to end, and the next two years were all about IIT. I guess olympiad math is one hobby that I lost back then. The JEE years were just as one would expect them to be, although I did stay in touch with football to keep my mind fresh.

How you got interested in Astronomy?

I hail from Pune, the place where the famous astrophysicist Dr Jayant Narlikar founded IUCAA in 1988. Over the years, IUCAA has played an instrumental role in the popularisation of science in general and astronomy in particular in the city of Pune, especially among school students. I happened to attend a week-long summer school at IUCAA after my 7th grade, where I was formally introduced to astronomy as a science for the very first time. I fell in love with it, and there was no going back.

Of course, it was just about the tip of the iceberg back then. I used to attend lectures and stargazing sessions at IUCAA in my school days. Later I bought an amateur telescope to practice my hobby at home, all by myself. The JEE days put an extended break to it. Thanks to Krittika, the astronomy club of IIT Bombay, I was able to revive it. I joined the club formally as a convenor in my 2nd year and became manager in my 3rd year. It was perhaps the best platform for me to stay in touch with my hobby. Late into my 2nd year, I joined Prof. Bhalerao from the Department of Physics to work on the GROWTH India project. That was my first step in pursuing astronomy professionally, and I’ve been taking further steps ever since.

What did discovering an Asteroid entail? Can you describe the process in brief?

The GROWTH collaboration, led by Caltech, has three main objectives, one of which is hunting Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). GROWTH India did not have an NEA component until June, when Prof. Bhalerao put me in touch with Dr Bolin, a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, to learn about NEAs and start follow-up observations with our telescope. Dr Bolin uses the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in his search for NEAs and trained me to scan ZTF data for asteroids.

The process is simple yet thorough. NEAs happen to move faster, as seen in the sky because of being much nearer to the earth as compared to stars in the background. As a result, these asteroids appear as streaks instead of points in typical telescope exposures. However, there are many other sources of streaked features in images. ZTF uses a pipeline to detect all the streaks in a picture, and the scanner is supposed to go through them and find the real ones.

How did it feel to discover the asteroid?

Honestly, I didn’t know how to feel initially. I recall an email thread with Prof. Bhalerao and a few people from Caltech congratulating me for it, and that’s when I knew it was something to be very very happy about. ZTF put up a congratulatory tweet. Prof. Bhalerao even put up a Facebook post about it and made me famous. It was a bunch of firsts for me.

I’ve co-discovered 25 more after that, and I’m still counting. But the first one is the only one that I remember by its name.

What are you currently working on?

I’ve continued my work on NEAs, along with automation of the GROWTH-India telescope. I’m currently learning the higher levels of asteroid discovery, working on becoming a regular Measurer, along with being an Observer. I’m also working towards my ultimate goal of discovering NEAs independently, and aim to get my first one very soon.

A takeaway for other students interested in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

To be completely honest, I feel I have been very lucky so far, getting just the right opportunities at just the right time. Being a student from a non-Physics department, I’ve always had a feeling of a disadvantage compared to my peers from the Physics department. However, I’ve never experienced any of it so far, thanks to the unique project culture of IITB and Prof. Bhalerao.

For students interested in Astronomy and Astrophysics, a decent background in amateur or general astronomy and the willingness to work hard are often enough to start working on a project. The number of telescopes around the world is ever-rising, and so is the amount of data. We have entered the multi-messenger astronomy era, and there’s practically no limit on the number of things available to study. India is also making considerable advancements in the field and has some brilliant astronomers spread over various institutes all over the country.

That being said, there probably hasn’t been a time with more opportunities in astronomy than this, and the best part is you can start working on several things even in your undergraduate years. The observable universe is too damn big, we can watch and watch, but it’s never going to be enough!

A big thanks to Kunal to share his strory with our fellow space nerds.

What has been your journey up till joining IIT?

I was exposed to air travel early as I live outside India, and the flight bug bit me at an early age. I wanted to be a pilot, but flight school is expensive, and the IAF was ruled out as a career thanks to my myopia. Since I was a good student, and mechanically inclined, my parents persuaded me to join a foundation program for IIT, where physics really caught my fancy. Engineering and buildings started to look a lot more attractive as a career, and I started getting serious about it in the 11th grade.

As for why I chose Aerospace Engineering, I’ve been fascinated by aircraft for as long as I remember. I’ve made paper planes since childhood, spent thousands of hours on Microsoft Flight Simulator, and even made a working wind tunnel model for my 11th-grade physics project where we explained how aeroplanes really fly. It was just a natural progression.

The journey at IIT. Were your expectations fulfilled?

The funny part of this is that I arrived at IIT as a CSE student, thanks to my rank. Here was where a lot of walls started to break down, as was the expectation that IIT would make me the best version of myself. IIT just gave me the tools I needed, and I had to stop being a "bakra" and figure out who I was. IIT really excels here, and you embark on a journey of self-discovery because you're not the best at everything anymore. There are tons to learn, and you need to find your niche or your calling. One shortcoming of IIT, however, is that a lot of my peers either found themselves in the wrong branch or not wanting to do engineering at all. This societal pressure has an impact on the environment and culture (of life at IIT).

Currently, you are working at Boeing India. How did you land at Boeing?

My ultimate goal has always been to build aircraft, and I was determined to work at an aerospace firm from the outset. This (resolve) firmed up during the internship season in 3rd year, where I sat out the consulting, coding, and FMCG companies and was waiting for either Gulfstream or Airbus. A senior of mine who interned at Boeing, however, said that the learning experience would be more fruitful at a Boeing internship than at Gulfstream. When Boeing India came for recruiting before Airbus or Gulfstream, I applied even though the profile wasn't in my preferred field of Aerodynamics.

I wasn't on the shortlist, but while taking a tutorial on the interview day, I got an urgent call from the IC (Internship Coordinator) saying that Boeing wished to interview me. I ran from my tutorial and gave that interview completely unprepared, and in a t-shirt and shorts. They must have seen something in me because I got the job offer. I took away many positive lessons from that internship, and that persuaded me to apply for the Boeing IT profile when they came for recruiting next year, knowing that I would be able to learn a lot from it. I skipped all the Day 1 and Day 2 companies again and got the job.

What are your job profile and daily schedule at work?

I work with a CFD product team in Boeing IT, where we build an interface to flatten the learning curve for everyday usage of CFD. This (job) places me in close contact with CFD and Aerodynamics Engineers and keeps me up to date on current industry standards and practice.

A typical day at the office runs from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Following that, I play football or work out at cult.fit. I make my food, and go cycling on weekends when possible.

A Key Takeaway from Undergraduate Life

If you're the smartest or most knowledgeable person in the room, you're likely in the wrong room. Be yourself and never strive solely to be the smartest. Everyone has their niche, and you should find yours by experimenting with different activities, and everything that college has to offer. Following the beaten path solely out of peer pressure makes you lose individuality.

A big thanks to Karthik to share his story with our fellow space nerds.

• Organisation: Boeing India

• Job Profile: Engineering Systems Developer

Saptarshi is a Robotics Technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. As an undergraduate, he co-founded and led IIT Bombay's Student Satellite Project which launched satellite Pratham on 26th September 2016—enabling me to have the opportunity to follow in his footsteps by leading the team in the last two years. He recently travelled to India in February and received the news of the grant while being in lockdown at his home in Mumbai. I asked him a few questions in regards to his concept of the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope.

What is the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) concept that you propose? How is it different from the Telescopes on Earth?

It is not possible to observe the Universe at wavelengths higher than 10m (i.e., frequencies below 30MHz) from Earth-based stations because the Earth's ionosphere reflects these signals. Moreover, Earth-orbiting satellites would pick up significant noise from Earth's ionosphere. Hence such observations are challenging.

Therefore, the wavelengths higher than 10m (i.e., frequencies below 30MHz) are hitherto mostly unexplored by humans till date.

The Moon acts as a physical shield that isolates the lunar-surface telescope from radio interferences/noises from Earth-based sources, ionosphere, Earth-orbiting satellites, and Sun's radio-noise during the lunar night. Hence a telescope on the far side of the Moon can observe the wavelengths higher than 10m (i.e., frequencies below 30MHz).

Quoted Saptarshi

When did you think of this concept? How long have you been working on this?

We have been working on this for three years now.

Quoted Saptarshi

In these three years, the team has developed a unique concept to establish this 1 km diameter telescope. A set of wall climbing DuAxel robots will deploy the required 1 km diameter mesh in a 3-5 km wide lunar crater. This Lunar Crater Radio Telescope will be the largest filled-aperture radio telescope in the Solar System! Currently, a Five-hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope or FAST is the largest one on Earth.

Now, with the NIAC phase 1 fellowship, what will be the further timeline?

I want to emphasize that LCRT is in very early stages of development. It is not currently a NASA mission.

The objective of NIAC Phase 1 is to study the feasibility of the LCRT concept. During Phase 1, we will mostly be focusing on the mechanical design of LCRT, search of suitable craters on Moon, and comparing the performance of LCRT against other ideas that have been proposed in the literature.

We will see what's ahead after finishing Phase 1.

Quoted Saptarshi

Do you have any predictions you have regarding what we may observe from Moon's farside?

I have written a paper on a previous-version of the LCRT concept, which available at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8396801

Quoted Saptarshi

While he quoted the science goals of LCRT from that paper: First Stars and the "Cosmic Dawn". In simpler terms, the team envisions finding out new and exciting information about the formation and evolution of the Universe by observing a unique spectral feature of neutral hydrogen which was one of the dominant components of the early intergalactic medium.

Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay is a Robotics Technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where he develops novel algorithms for future multi-agent and swarm missions. He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering in 2016 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, where he specialized in probabilistic swarm guidance and distributed estimation. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2010 from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, where, as an undergraduate, he co-founded and led the institute's student satellite project Pratham, which was launched into low Earth orbit in September 2016. His engineering expertise stems from a long-standing interest in the science underlying space missions, since winning the gold medal for India at the 9th International Astronomy Olympiad held in Ukraine in 2004. Saptarshi's current research interests include robotics, multi-agent systems and swarms, dynamics and controls, estimation theory, probability theory, and systems engineering. He has published more than 40 papers in journals and refereed conferences.