Choice between Physics and Biology propels Swati Mohan to NASA
Chennai, Jul 29: It was the choice between physics and biology that had made all the difference to Indian-born Swati Mohan to pursue her passion in space science at NASA.
Swati, who was part of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission, said her decision to opt to study physics in high school helped to pursue her passion at NASA.
"Physics was easy and biology didnt come naturally to me the internship at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) gave me the opportunities to learn and explore," the guidance, navigation and control systems engineering group supervisor of NASA's JPL, said.
She was speaking at the launch of the #DiasporaDiplomacy held under the aegis of the US Consulate General in Chennai, on Wednesday. US Consul General in Chennai Judith Ravin inaugurated the virtual series.
From enrolling in space camp at NASA to selecting a school to taking up internships, Swati said she was drawn to exploring and learning about other places in the solar system.
Her parents and her family members including her husband were "super supporters" in helping her chase her passion, the mother of two daughters said.
"There are many Indian Americans and Indians working on Mars 2020 and JPL as a whole," she said responding to queries from students and participants.
Asked if the Indian premier space agency ISRO and NASA would take up joint missions in future, Swati replied, NASA and ISRO are collaborating on NISAR (NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite. The ISRO instrument team is at JPL integrating their portion of the instrument with the JPL portion.
"The JPL team will come to India next year to integrate and launch the spacecraft from India," she said and hoped that NASA and ISRO partnership would continue to grow in future.
NISAR is expected to be launched into a near-polar orbit to observe our planet's land and ice-covered surfaces every 12 days over the course of its three-year mission of imaging the earth's land, ice sheets and sea ice.
While responding to a query on whether she faced trouble because of her origin, she replied, "in my career journey I faced more difficulty in being a woman in a male dominated field than being an Indian."
However, she considered herself blessed at "a diverse organisation like JPL which has a lot of diaspora from many different cultures."
Is she missing India and anything in particular? "I especially miss the street food in India so good especially the corn roasted by the vendors," she replied.
Every time she visits India, she ensures a visit to the restaurants here because the food is so much better. She however hastens to add "of course we have good Indian restaurants here (in USA)."
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Kumaraswamy accuses Cong govt of 'neglecting' farmers in Karnataka
Mysuru (PTI): Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday accused the Congress government in Karnataka of "neglecting" the farmers in the state and being involved in corruption.
The JD(S) leader took part in an event where President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the 1066th Jayanthi celebrations of Adi Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Shivayogi Mahaswamiji at Malavalli in Mandya district, which comes under his Lok Sabha constituency.
"I saw a report that 2,800 farmers have died by suicide after this government came to power (in state). The government seems to be not concerned about the farmers. This government on coming to power said that it will give Rs 24,000 crore as loan to 32 lakh farmers for their farming activities, but till November, about Rs 12,000 crore has been paid to 24 lakh farmers, limiting to what was there earlier by managing the books of account," Kumaraswamy said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, "These things show the failures of this government. Also, there is a corrupt system. I will not speak about it now. After December 20, I will speak to you in detail. There are a lot of issues to share with you."
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Responding to a question, the JD(S) leader, who turned 66 today, said there is no use of giving any documents. "I'm waiting for the right time."
Regarding the Congress government introducing a bill against "hate speech" in the Assembly, Kumaswamy said it is aimed at silencing the opposition in the state, but they won't be successful.
"What do Congress leaders have to say about their workers' comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi?. He cited slogans -- 'Modi teri kabr khudegi, aaj nahi to kal khudegi' (Modi's grave will be dug.. if not today, then tomorrow) -- allegedly raised against Modi at a Congress rally in Delhi on Sunday.
