ISRO Woman Spends 403 Days in Antarctica

Mangala Mani, "The first polar woman of India". At the age of 56 years having never experienced a snowfall, she stayed in the coldest part of the earth where the temperature can go as low as -90 degree celsius.

Looking into her life, she was one of the 6 children of her parents. Her father was very encouraging and disciplined man. She completed her 10th grade from 'Holy Mary High School' and joined diploma in electronics.

Challenges started for her from here itself. She was the only girl among 80 boys. But she never let herself feel inferior or different and believed that she could do better than most of the boys. After successful completion of her diploma she joined ISRO in 1982. She was the first lady scientist in ISRO. She was working in telecommunication support system and also worked on project SLV-3 whose project director was none other than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Though the project wasn’t a success at that time, it was a great learning curve for her. After her marriage she did her post-graduation from IISc Bengaluru. When asked what motivated her to become a scientist, she said she was always fascinated by experiments and reports of NASA and collected paper-cuttings of them in a notebook.

"Men may have physical strength but women are emotionally strong. All women should have faith in themselves and should always try to put their best foot forward”. These words of Mangala were a clear indication of strong will and great ambition. Can you imagine spending over a year in a frozen land, where mercury could drop to 90 degrees centigrade in winter? The idea of it is good enough to send shivers through our spine. But this is not the case with 56 year old ISRO scientist Mangala Mani. The age at which majority of the people vouch for a comfortable job and lifestyle, she took up the challenge of spending over 403 days in Antarctica challenging conditions. Mangala Mani who never experienced snowfall in her entire life, was an integral part of the 23-member expedition which was stationed in Antartica 2016 at India's research station, Bharati Mangala was the only woman in the all men team of scientists. Even Russian and Chinese stations didn't have any women on their team. Mangala and her team were stationed in icy city to collect satellite data as India's majority of satellites are polar orbiting, from Antartica, 14 orbits are visible. This history scripted by Mangala Mani will be of significant impact on many upcoming generations.

To get selected for the tough assignment, Mangala Mani and her team were physically and mentally tested for weeks. She had to first undergo a series of medical check-ups at AIIMS, Delhi, for a week that included psychological assessment for long-term wintering. Thereafter, for next two weeks, she was taken to Auli in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district at 9,000 feet altitude for ice acclimatization and later to Badrinath at 10,000 feet. There, she and her team had to go on long treks with heavy backpacks in order to test their physical endurance. Mangala Mani said, "The tests were meant not only to prepare our bodies to face the rigors of Antarctica but also meant to build a team spirit".

"Summers, ships sail to Antarctica to provide food and fuel supply for a year's duration as the world's coldest region remains cut off during winter. We collect all waste and pack them and send them back to the mainland so as to keep environment at the station completely clean", she said.

On Mangala Mani's nature of job at Antarctica, her boss, Doctor Y V N Krishnamurthy, the director of Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) told, Mangala and her team were supposed to operate and maintain the Indian research station and collect loads of satellite data as we have polar-orbiting satellites. Unlike Hyderabad, where only two or three orbits are visible, Antarctica (south pole) is the place from where one can observe 14 orbits. The loads of space data are downloaded at the Antarctica station and sent to the Hyderabad Centre via the communication satellite link for processing and distribution to users.

On her ambition, the NRSC director said, "Mani always had a dream for exploration. It was an opportunity for her to prove her point. And she successfully performed the task. In fact, two parliamentary committees were highly impressed with her performance in Antarctica".

She is a true inspiration for many others out there. We are very proud of her achievements.

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