Susmita Mohanty

Susmita Mohanty calls herself a moonwalker. A spaceship designer, a space entrepreneur with presence in three continents and the founder of India’s first private space start-up, EARTH2ORBIT, she’s a force unto the universe. Susmita launched India’s first space think tank, Spaceport SARABHAI, which has just turned three. Its mission is to give India an international voice; grow the body of knowledge that informs critical areas of space law and policy; build public perspective through writings, debates and discussions; and transform India into a developed space economy by 2030.

Among her other notable projects is one at the NASA Johnson Space Centre, where she analysed debriefs of American astronauts from four Shuttle-Mir missions where the American Space Shuttle docked with the Russian space station, Mir. The idea was to compare and contrast the responses (to habitability factors such as air quality, water, food, re-supply from Earth, sleep, hygiene, odour, physical and mental well-being) of astronauts who encountered Mir for a few days to that of astronauts who spent six months onthe Russian station.

Her first space venture, MOONFRONT (San Francisco), put NASA on Second Life. They co-hosted the 2001 Arthur Clarke Gala on the Playboy Mansion grounds in Los Angeles to celebrate the new millennium and the cult classic 2001: A Space Odyssey by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. The party was attended by space enthusiasts including Hollywood veterans James Cameron, Morgan Freeman and Tom Hanks.

Her second space venture, LIQUIFER Systems Group (Vienna) designs, builds and tests prototypes of space habitation, transportation and exploration systems. One of BBC’s 100 Women Laureates of a female-led future, today she’s on the cusp of some important undertakings focused on climate and culture.

Soumya Mukerji: What was your earliest encounter with space? Growing up, do you remember the moment you decided to dedicate your life to the field?
Dr. Susmita Mohanty: I was raised amongst the ISRO pioneers in Ahmedabad, my dad being one of them. My dad returned from Germany in 1967 and was recruited by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of India’s space program. ISRO was formally incorporated in 1969 and I was born in 1971.

When I was in high-school, I was smitten by the idea of solving design problems for human space exploration. I started working on ‘imaginary problems of living and working in microgravity’ and carried on with it through my undergraduate and graduate education.

I came up with perceived design problems associated with living in earth orbit and then went about solving it. I would bicycle to libraries at Space Applications Centre, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), School of Architecture at Centre for Environmental Planning (CEPT), Community Science Centre (CSC), National Institute of Design (NID) for my self-propelled research. I’d also seek out scientists, engineers, architects, designers, professors at these institutions to discuss my self-initiated projects.

It was good fun. I would draw using Rotring technical drawing pens and type using my dad’s portable German typewriter. I did not have access to computers until I got to my Master’s program at NID in 1993. I used to snail mail my design reports to NASA, ESA and American universities where I knew they were working on similar problems. For every ten letters I wrote, I’d hear back from a couple of them. That kept me going.

SM: What went into the conception of India’s first space think tank, Spaceport SARABHAI and what is your vision for the organisation as it turns three?
Dr. SM: India is among the top six space faring nations in the world, the others being USA, China, Russia, France, Japan. Soon, we will launch humans into low earth orbit and move up a couple of notches to the top four – only the Russians, Americans and Chinese have that capability. Last August, we became the first country in the world to land near the lunar south pole, which is quite commendable.