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ShareMumbai: When you hear someone say one could get married in space someday, you might laugh off the thought as just being another pie-in-the-sky fantasy. But when that someone is Susmita Mohanty, ex-NASA aeronautical engineer, member of International Academy of Astronautics and who has shared design projects for Lunar and Martian base with international space companies, the 'flighty' thought suddenly seems more grounded.
"It's true, it takes just ten minutes to get to sub-orbital space," laughs the 36-year-old innovator from Orissa. "Anyone can fly into space. It used to be a big deal, not anymore," she says, her lithe frame leaning forward to add, "Got $200,000 for the ticket?"
She'd know, being part of a fraternity that is building a space port for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the company that could well herald an era of birthdays in space or even better, perhaps a vacation there.
This protégé of Arthur C Clarke (the science fiction writer even funded part of her scholarship) and Star Trek fan started her tryst with the Great Beyond began as a child -- her father was a pioneer with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Now Susmita mulls over micro-gravity restraints and hygiene systems, sleep stations, compact gymnasiums, a new (Rover) buggy for planetary sorties and more. "You know moon dust smells like gunpowder and earthrises are so beautiful; I'd give anything to watch them," she sighs, breaking off to clear up a few snapshots of the Moon and space in her otherwise uncluttered sea-facing South Mumbai residence.
"This is my hub for now," she continues. "For me, home is wherever I am." That could also be Vienna and San Franciso, where she has set up her firms, but she hopes to make India the permanent base for her company, Earth2Orbit. "The Indian aerospace sector -- civilian and defence -- will slowly open up to the private sector and all the big players will be in, so that's great. I'm also hoping to work with ISRO," she reveals.
At another level, she also knows that living in space isn't easy. "Astronauts are humans, they may fight, fall in love, have their downslides, so their environment must support them. There's no question of walking out in a heated argument!" No arguments with that.
