Mangalyaan, a space probe orbit is circling around Mars as you read this. It wasn’t an easy task to drop the first interplanetary mission successfully without broken pieces of hope. Trial after trial, it took 18 months and a budget of about 450 crore Rupees. And finally on 24th September 2014 Mangalyaan took hold of its position and orbiting since then. One of the greatest achievements of ISRO (The Indian Space Research Organisation) that made India to be the fourth country in the world to reach Mars.

The hardship and a successful mission were impossible without Dr. Karidhal. Growing up in a middle-class family is always the congestion of life. The only way one could think of is to have shiny education scores. Her interest was always focused on space sciences at an early period. With unavailability of resources to study she went on self mode. To keep herself updated while she was growing up, she collected newspaper and article cuttings about ISRO and NASA. Her mind would always question the moon and stars in the dark space.

Her education was entirely in Physics, and later on, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Lucknow University in 2019. She worked for ISRO since 1997. Mangalyaan would have been still on earth if it was not for her immense contribution. Dr. Kaidhal dealt with detailing and execution of the craft’s onward autonomy system. This also added that the Satellite must function independently in space and had enough malfunctioning auto-response.

Following Mangalyaan, She supervised as the mission director for Chandrayaan 2, which is a lunar exploration mission. Dr. Karidhal received the ISRO young Scientist Award in 2007 from the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

However, India’s Rocket woman’s remarkable contribution in space science still needs more recognition and high dignitary national award to justify her contribution to the achievement of India. She currently works as a senior scientist in ISRO.