Mangalyaan, MoM mission has many women behind it

The Mars Orbiter Mission or MoM has several women scientists behind it. As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully test-fired the Mars Orbiter Mission's main engine, which was in the sleep mode for 10 months, a roar went up at the ISRO centre in Bangalore. This picture among the many reflects how female scientists helping the mission are central to the success of Mangalyaan.

Mangalyaan is primarily a technological mission and it has been configured to carry out observation of physical features of Mars and carry out limited study of the Martian atmosphere.

A team of 14 ISRO scientists is credited as being the brain behind this mission. ISRO will be among a league of three other agencies that have achieved success on missions to Mars. The country joined the United States, European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union in the elite club of Martian explorers with the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately called MOM.

Qz.com reported there’s a crucial band of women, working across the entire range of India’s space programme, that comprise about 20% of ISRO’s total workforce of 14,246 employees. It said about 10% of the total staff, or 1,654, are women engineers.

Among the 500 scientists who worked on the agency’s Mars Orbiter Mission also include women like Minal Sampath, a systems engineer.

“I forget I am a woman sometimes, working in such an organisation,” she told the BBC earlier this year according to the article. “Maybe it’s because we spend a lot of time working in clean rooms with full suits on, so you can’t tell who is male or female.”