×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

To chase ideas & push boundaries

Last Updated 26 February 2016, 18:33 IST

FLYING HIGH Susmita Mohanty, an aerospace entrepreneur, wants to see more women get the spotlight they deserve, learns Pooja Mahesh.

Susmita Mohanty is one of the very few women in India who chose to break away from the crowd and look beyond the conventional career choices of engineering and medicine. An aerospace entrepreneur, Susmita is a protégée of Arthur C Clarke, the late science fiction writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Her love affair with space began early when she had sent her first idea to NASA while still in high school. “I am passionate about the art and science of designing habitats and transporters to live and work in the hostile environment of outer space. Thus, I ended up being a space architect,” says Susmita. She grew up in Ahmedabad surrounded by the pioneers of Indian space programme, including her dad. At the same time, she also got exposed to contemporary architecture as families who owned textile mills in Ahmedabad
often commissioned great architects such as Louis Kahn and B V Doshi to build homes and public institutions. She has, what can be called, a ‘global education’, having been educated in France, Sweden and India.

For a long time, Susmita knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur. But before plunging in, she worked briefly at Boeing and NASA. “I love to chase ideas, challenge the status quo and push the boundaries of technology, exploration and human endeavour,” she says. This inspired her to begin her first company, MoonFront in San Francisco in 2001. Taking this as a learning experience, she co-founded her second company, LIQUIFER Systems Group (LSG), in Vienna.

Explaining her style of work, Susmita says, “I believe in a multidisciplinary approach to design where architects, engineers, industrial designers, sociologists, human behaviour scientists and others collaborate to design future systems,” she explains. This is perhaps
why she launched her third company, Earth2Orbit (E2O), in India when she returned in 2007. With this company, she had the dream of leading India’s foray into international markets.

For the long haul

So, what advice does she have for aspiring space entrepreneurs? “You have to be in it for the long haul. Unlike the get-rich-quick IT startups, it takes a good six to seven years for a space startup to start making decent revenues. Most investors are looking for a quick exit and instant return on investment. You need a real appetite for risk or be passionate about space to be able to invest in space companies,” she says.

Susmita rues about the lack of support that space entrepreneurs receive in India when compared with their western counterparts, who receive a “fantastic funding ecosystem” from space agencies like NASA, European Space Agency and the European Commission. “E2O was bootstrapped and had to fly on an empty tank for a few years before we started to make revenues. There are a handful of space startups now in the country and we have come together to support each other and push for real change, not just empty talk,” she informs.

Speaking of women in the field, Susmita maintains, “While one cannot deny that aerospace has traditionally been dominated by men, women are starting to play prominent roles, even taking on leadership positions. The German Space Agency (DLR) now has an Austrian astrobiologist, Dr Pascale Ehrenfreund, as its chief. The first woman head of a space agency was Dr Mazlan Othman of Malaysia and she later went on to head the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA). There are many such examples.”

She also hopes that one day, more women will be able to take on more leadership roles. Closer home, she remembers a meeting where, “two out of the eight ISRO scientists and engineers attending were women. One of them designed the trajectory for the PSLV mission, while the other was in charge of the choreography and sequence of jettisoning nearly a dozen satellites from the rocket once in space.”

By establishing an Indian chapter of Women in Aerospace, an international organisation that is dedicated to expanding women’s opportunities for leadership and increasing their visibility in the aerospace community, Susmita believes that ISRO can now promote and highlight the accomplishments of Indian women in space. “They are underappreciated and not given the spotlight they deserve. When the now-famous photo showing ISRO women scientists in silk saris flashing a victory sign celebrating the success of Mangalyaan went viral, the world was both thrilled and surprised,” adds Susmita.

Besides working on space projects, what does the entrepreneur like to do? Well, she likes to conceptualise and curate projects that intersect the arts and sciences. In May 2015, Susmita had organised an underwater dance workshop with French choreographer Kitsou Dubois at the Gati Dance Company in New Delhi. “I live a renaissance life, seamlessly straddling the worlds of art, architecture, design, technology and business,” states Susmita. This can perhaps be best seen in the City as a Spaceship (CAAS) Collective, which she formed with Barbara Imhof and Sue Fairburn.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 26 February 2016, 15:49 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT