Udupi Ramachandra Rao (1932–2017)
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PERSONAL NEWS Udupi Ramachandra Rao (1932–2017) Prof. U. R. Rao, internationally re- could be used to get a better understand- 34, 41 satellites. For these space mis- nowned space scientist and father of the ing of the interstellar and interplanetary sions Rao along with his colleague K. G. satellite programme in India, passed medium. Young Rao was excited about McCracken, designed and developed par- away on 27 July 2017 at his residence in understanding these challenging prob- ticle detectors to measure the degree of Bengaluru. Rao symbolizes several per- lems. In his own words ‘The great scien- anisotropy of cosmic radiation in the en- sonalities – a versatile space scientist, a tists R. S. Krishnan and G. N. Rama- ergy range 7.5–90 MeV/nucleon with an technologist par excellence, a passionate chandran offered me 200 rupees accuracy of better than one part in 104. space application protagonist, leader, scholarship for Ph D under them. Dr These studies resulted in deep under- manager, institution builder, visionary – Sarabhai offered me 100 rupees. But I standing of the solar cosmic ray phe- all rolled into one. He laid the foundation went to Ahmedabad and (to work with) nomena and the electromagnetic state of for the development of satellite technol- Dr Sarabhai because I was interested in interplanetary space. Working on these ogy in India, and is rightfully considered cosmic rays.’ He joined Physical Re- space missions also gave him a good un- as the Father of India’s satellite pro- search Laboratory (PRL) in 1954 as a derstanding of satellite technology. gramme. India’s capability of building Rao returned to India in 1966 and world class satellites is largely due to his joined PRL and along with his col- dynamic and visionary leadership. leagues, Kasturirangan, Prakash Rao and Though Rao will be remembered primar- others, carried out extensive work in ily for developing from scratch satellite high energy astronomy, particularly on technology in the country and putting the correlation between the time varia- India at par with other space-faring tion of optical and X-ray emission of X- nations, he led the space programme in ray sources in the energy range 2–20 keV various capacities with unstinted com- using balloon, rocket and satellite-borne mitment to align the goals of the organi- instrumentation. Rao and his group also zation with national development. made significant contribution to the un- Udupi Ramachandra Rao was born on derstanding of cosmic X-ray and gamma 10 March 1932 to Lakshminarayana ray background and studied the effects of Acharya and Krishnaveni Amma in celestial X-ray sources on the ionization Adamaru village, Udupi, Karnataka. He of nocturnal-D-region ionosphere. had his early education in Christian High Sarabhai was looking for a leader to School, Udupi and inter-junior course in take the responsibility of developing sat- Veerashaiva College, Bellary. He studied ellite technology in India and the respon- his B Sc at the Government Arts and sibility was assigned to Rao. The activity Science College, Ananthapur under Ma- An young Rao testing a sounding rocket was started as a division – Satellite Sys- dras University; and got his M Sc in payload. tems Division – in the Vikram Sarabhai Physics from Banaras Hindu University, Space Centre (VSSC), then called the Varanasi in 1953. doctoral student under Vikram Sarabhai. Space Science and Technology Centre He started his career as a lecturer in For the study of diurnal and semi-diurnal (SSTC). The initial plan was to develop a physics. His passion for science variations of galactic cosmic ray inten- 40 kg satellite compatible with the Scout prompted him to find avenues for carry- sity he was awarded Ph D from Gujarat launch vehicle of the USA and carry out ing out research. In those days study of University in 1960. He then continued some scientific experiments to build in- cosmic rays, discovered by Victor Hess his research work at the Massachusetts digenous capability for building satel- in 1912, was an exciting field in particle Institute of Technology (MIT), as a post lites. In the meantime there was an offer astrophysics. The cosmic ray spectrum doctoral fellow and worked with Bruno from USSR to launch a satellite devel- contains particles with energies as high Rossi’s group at MIT who were studying oped by India on a Soviet launch vehicle. as 1020 eV or more which cannot be pro- cosmic showers. Rossi was an excellent The task of realizing the satellite and as- duced in the laboratory. Study of these physicist and experimentalist. Working sociated activities was called ‘Indian particles gives new information on parti- with Rossi gave Rao good insight into Scientific Satellite Project (ISSP)’. In cle interactions at these high energies. instrumentation building for particle de- August 1971 a team led by Rao was de- The discovery of cosmic rays also posed tection. Later Rao moved to Southwest puted to USSR to discuss and finalize the a number of questions – how do cosmic Center for Advanced Studies at Dallas details of a joint satellite programme. As rays reach such high energies?; where (now University of Texas) as Assistant the story goes during the discussions are the natural accelerators?; what are the Professor. The expertise gained at MIT with the Soviets they initially suggested sources of primary cosmic rays?; – was fruitfully used to build satellite pay- that since satellite technology is com- which are some of the challenging prob- loads. During his stay at Texas he plex, India should go step by step. Their lems still not fully resolved. The study of worked on several space missions such advice was first to make only a satellite cosmic rays and the nature of their inter- as Mariner-2 (the world’s first successful payload and put on a Soviet satellite. actions during their propagation from the interplanetary spacecraft), Pioneers-6, 7, However, Rao was clear what he wanted source to the point of detection also 8, 9 deep space probes and the Explorer to achieve. He insisted that India will CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 113, NO. 5, 10 SEPTEMBER 2017 979 PERSONAL NEWS start with designing a complete satellite. to none in the application of advanced centres ensuring decision-making at de- But for his insistence, India would have technologies to the real problems of man centralized level where technological lost the lead in satellite technology at and society’. Even before the launch of proficiency lies. At the same time, to en- least by a decade. This is typical of Aryabhatta he was planning to have the sure adequate coordination, interface Rao – a long-term vision and never com- next satellite with focus on application control, quality assurance and profes- promise on what he wants to achieve. It and India’s first remote sensing satel- sional documentation appropriate man- was realized that considering the aca- lite – Bhaskara 1 – was borne, which is agement structure was created. Over the demic and industrial environment, Ban- the forerunner of the state-of-the-art re- years, this basic organizational structure galore was a better place compared to mote sensing series of satellite IRS and envisaged by Rao largely remained the Trivandrum to carry out the satellite and Cartosat. Another bold step he took was same in the management of ISRO’s the project was shifted to Bangalore. The to accept the offer from ESA to launch a space projects. project had to start from ‘scratch’ with geostationary satellite on the third ex- In 1984 Rao took charge as Chairman, no laboratory place, no man power, and perimental launch of the Ariane launch ISRO, and Secretary, Department of no equipment! The activity started in the vehicle. Though the schedule was very Space and guided the space programme industrial sheds at the outskirts of Banga- tight, he took the challenge as it provided for 10 years. During this period he accel- lore, a village called Peenya. Most of the a low-cost opportunity to develop in- erated the development of rocket tech- scientists/engineers joined were fresh digenous capability to carry out an end- nology, resulting in the successful launch from college. In fact except Rao none in to-end geostationary satellite communi- of the ASLV rocket in 1992 and com- the initial team members had even seen a cation programme. Thus the first pleted the development of PSLV launch satellite, but they were competent, dedi- communication satellite – APPLE – was vehicle, which is currently the workhorse cated professionals with a focus to real- born which can be considered as the of ISRO for launching satellites in the ize the project in time, meeting the forerunner of INSAT series of multipur- polar orbit. Rao also initiated the devel- quality standards. Apart from availability pose satellite. As the number of satellites opment of the geostationary launch vehi- of trained manpower, many components increased, it was decided to build a more cle (GSLV) and the development of required for building the satellite have to permanent place and the ISRO Satellite cryogenic technology. His chairmanship be procured from abroad. Rao could Centre (ISAC) was born with Rao as its at ISRO can be described as the opera- convince the bureaucrats that for a pro- founder director. ISAC is the nerve- tional phase of India’s space programme, ject like this where both time and quality centre of India’s satellite programmes. when all experiments that were being of the product were of paramount impor- The new entrants to ISAC, working with tried out under Satish Dhawan’s chair- tance, it is necessary to think ‘out of the the state-of-the-art equipment and test manship became operational.