Many of us, especially those who have grown up watching sci-fi movies, are fascinated with outer space. While for most of us, acting on that fascination remains a dream, here’s a young woman who has literally made fiction into reality! Born and raised in Ooty, Deepana Gandhi handles ‘Guidance Navigation & Control’ for Bengaluru-based Team Indus, which does some very interesting work.
Owing to their exemplary performance in the Google Lunar X Prize, one of the most prestigious aerospace competitions in the world, the team has been getting accolades from the biggest experts in the field. Apart from this, they were also featured in a nine-part documentary called Moon Shot, which was screened at the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. This was when a surreal experience happened for Deepana and her team — J.J. Abrams, the director of Star Wars, who graced the festival, interacted with the team and claimed that he was a huge ‘fan’ of theirs!
Deepana speaks at length to DC about the contest, her obsession with space and how she’s trying to break gender stereotypes by achieving big in this field. “It’s a ten-year dream, which we’re about to realise! Fingers crossed, but we’ll try our best to come out on top,” starts Deepana. The Google Lunar X Prize, which was founded in 2007, is awarded to teams, who are able to land a privately-funded rover on the moon, travel 500 meters on its surface, and transmit back high-definition video and images. Team Indus is currently among the top three teams competing for this prize. They even received a $1 million cash prize for this. Elaborating on how her love for space was awakened, she explains, “Right from a very young age, I’ve always been obsessed towards it. Be it reading or watching films, I always loved everything about space! And, later, while pursuing my masters degree in PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, I did an internship in ISRO and that’s when I made my mind that I would give my best to excel in this challenging field.”
She is full praise for Team Indus, which was started by four people — Rahul Narayan, Dilip Chabria, Sameer Joshi and Julius Amrit. They started the venture after they came to know that despite Indians being at the top in aerospace technology, there was no team from India representing the country — “We’re a young team who support each other no matter what. The hierarchy over here is like a dream for passionate people like me. Hence, all of us owe it to our four founders who have been doing the country proud,” she muses.
She gets instantly excited when we query her about her experience interacting with JJ Abrams. “I myself am a big fan of Star Wars, and when I conveyed this to him, I was taken aback when he replied, ‘See, what I’m doing is not a big deal, as it’s only my imagination. But, I’m a big fan of people like you as you’re doing it for real.’ Further, he even joked about asking our help if he wanted to perform a shoot on moon someday,” she laughs.
Moving on to her work, when we ask if her achievements could inspire other women, she says, “India has had two stalwarts —Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, from whom every young girl can take inspiration. Compared to them, I’m just a beginner, but all I can say is, if anyone has the utmost dedication, they can achieve in this field.”
On a concluding note, she lists her future aspirations — “I always like to take it one step at a time. I’m totally focussed on the Google project now. I always believe that the learning process is the most important aspect in this field, and I wish to grow slowly but steadily!”
