Meet the 3 Women Scientists Who Led India’s Mars Orbiter Mission

The year 2013 put Indians on the global space map when ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Mission aka Mangalyaan successfully. India, in its first interplanetary mission, became the first Asian nation to reach the Mars orbit and also the first one to do in its first attempt.

Amidst all the celebrations and smiles, three women scientists played crucial roles in the mission. Despite the unequal sex ratio in the country, women continue to appear as winners across the multiple male-dominated professions. The Mars Orbiter Mission is just another example of this.

Afar , a short film by Breakthrough, is a film about the women behind the Mars mission. The film features Seetha Somasundaram, the Program Director of the ISRO Space Science Program Office, Nandini Harinath, Project Manager, Mission Design, and Deputy Operations Director, Mars Orbiter Mission, and Minal Rohit, Scientist and Engineer, Project Manager, Methane Sensor for Mars.

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