Mylswamy Annadurai: The man at the helm of India's space missions

Mylswamy Annadurai, programme director, Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan missions at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently addressed students in an hour long session at Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management (SJMSOM), IIT- Bombay.  His interaction with students focused on ‘Science as a way of life’ which he explained with a number of anecdotes interspersed throughout his 32 years at ISRO.

“In order to become a problem solver, it is necessary to become an innovator,” said Annadurai. Within three months of working at the space organisation in 1982, Annadurai, came up with the idea of creating a simulator before building a satellite to analyse beforehand problems face pre and post launch. According to Annadurai, all innovations start with a simple idea but they need to be developed meticulously. “I kept thinking of how to use software for hardware purposes to save costs as well as increase performance. Gradually, I arrived at the idea of a simulator,” he said. To begin with, he submitted a 10 page note describing his concept to which the director said, ‘If you are capable, then take the responsibility and do it’. “This was just three months after joining work and the faith meant a lot to me,” Annadurai said. The simulator took nearly five years to materialise.   

Similarly, 15 years into his service at ISRO, the INSAT 2E satellite which beamed Indian programmes to Europe, from which the government earned a revenue of 10 million dollars per year ran into a problem. Both the sensors which were critical in maintaining the satellite’s altitude failed within two years of the launch. However the satellite had fuel to run for another 15 years. “We could not just let the satellite drift away and go waste. So we checked the programmes at the ground level and depending on the clarity or the lack of it, adjusted the satellite. We performed the function of the sensors at the ground level,” said Annadurai. The satellite continued to function in this way for the next 12 years. “It was a crazy idea, but it worked because of systematic implementation,” he said. 

In 1999, when Annadurai was put in-charge of the Chandrayaan mission, most people thought that it was impossible to complete by 2008. The mission was already reconfigured in order to accommodate five extra instruments obtained from other agencies before former president of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam asked Annadurai to touch the moon and not just orbit it. “Technically, this was a problem since our launch vehicle (PSLV) had already reached its capacity. Adding more fuel to touch the moon would mean discarding one of the instruments,” said Annadurai. After many deliberations, it was decided that a smaller system would piggyback Chandrayaan and would impact the moon at a suitable time. “Impacting is easier than a soft landing and we managed to accommodate this system (moon impact probe) without escalating costs,” Annadurai explained. 

About the recent Mars Orbiter Mission, which received worldwide adulation, Annadurai said that all the instruments on board were functioning properly. Next on his list is Mission Aditya. The objective of this mission is to study the sun. “The aim is to place a system at a position between the earth and sun in such a way that it revolves around the sun but remains stationery with respect to the earth,” said Annadurai. This will help study the earth from a vantage point since there will be no issue of darkness. 

From the education point of view, Annadurai said that learning science in the vernacular language is more advantageous. “By learning science in the vernacular language, once can focus and concentrate on learning and understanding the subject matter than on learning a new language,” he said. However, to achieve this is difficult due to the significant difference between the quality of English and vernacular language textbooks, especially in higher level education.