Chandrayaan-3 on Moon: Meet Dr Ritu Karidhal, woman behind ISRO’s moon mission

Chandrayaan-3 on Moon: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) created history by successfully landing Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Rover on the south pole of the moon. While on one hand, the successful landing helped India establish its scientific and technological prowess on the global forum in terms of space missions, on the other hand, it will help in furthering scientific research and understanding of the moon. Achieving this was no easy feat and it took experts from various departments at the Indian space agency to successfully land the rover on the lunar surface. One name that stands out from rest is that of Dr Ritu Karidhal.

But who is Dr Ritu Karidhal?

Dr Ritu Karidhal is also known as the Rocket Woman of India. She got this name for the key role that she played in the Mars Orbiter Mission or MoM, which created history of being the first mission to reach the surface of Mars in its first attempt. Dr Karidhal was the Deputy Operations Director of Mangalyaan and her work focused on the craft’s onward autonomy system that operated the satellite’s functions independently in space. That said, MoM is just one of the many noteworthy projects in India’s space exploration journey that she has been a part of. After Mangalyaan, Dr Karidhal played a key role in steering India’s second mission to Moon, that is, Chandrayaan-2, before it crash-landed on the surface of the moon. She was the Mission Director of Chandrayaan-2.

For the unversed, Dr Karidhal hails from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. He was interested in space sciences from an early age. Dr Karidhal completed her BSc in Physics from University of Lucknow, post which she Completed her MSc in Physics from University of Lucknow. She also pursued her PhD there. Later she joined IISc, Bangalore, to pursue MTech in aerospace engineering before joining ISRO in 1997.

During the course of nearly two-decades long career at ISRO, Dr Karidhal has received numerous awards and accolades including the ISRO Young Scientist Award from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in 2007, and ISRO Team Award for MOM in 2015. She has also presented at TED and TEDx events.