Chandrayaan-2 among new ISRO chief’s challenges

He has represented ISRO at international forums like World Meteorological Organisation and Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.

A S Kiran Kumar, who has been appointed head of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the next three years, is known to be unassuming, soft spoken and keeping a low profile. The 62-year-old Kiran Kumar hails from rural Karnataka and holds an MTech in physical engineering from Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science. He has been an ISRO man since completing his higher education in 1975 and is presently the seniormost scientist of the the space agency.

Kiran Kumar will also be chairman of the space commission and secretary of the department of space replacing Shailesh Nayak, the secretary ministry of earth sciences, who was appointed ISRO chairman on an interim basis following retirement of the space agency’s former head Dr K Radhakrishnan.

A Padma Shri awardee in 2014, Kiran Kumar has over the last two years spearheaded the development of instruments and space observation strategies for ISRO as head of Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad.

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In ISRO, he is highly regarded for evolving an observation strategy — encompassing land, ocean, atmospheric and planetary studies — first as an associate director at the SAC and subsequently as its director since 2012.

The new ISRO chairman has been an important contributor to technologies used by the agency in its satellites and missions — including from the Bhaskara TV payload in the 1980s, the Terrain Mapping Camera and Hyperspectral Imager payloads on the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008 and three instruments on the ongoing Mars mission.

According to an ISRO statement, Kiran Kumar has contributed “to the design and development of Electro-Optical Imaging Sensors for Airborne, Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary orbit satellites’’ as the head of Electro-optical Systems Group within ISRO. He has been involved in the creation of communication, navigation, microwave and remote sensing capabilities on ISRO satellites from the stage of conception to realization.

Kiran Kumar’s contributions to remote sensing technology have won him the Indian Society of Remote Sensing Awards in 1994 and 2007. He has also won the ISRO Individual Service Award in 2006 and an ISRO Performance Excellence Award in 2008. Among his seminal contributions to space science are the study of moon following the maiden Indian moon mission – leading to publication of a research paper documenting the detection of water on the central peak of the Jackson crater using a Moon Mineralogical Mapper.

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He has represented ISRO at international forums like the World Meteorological Organisation and Committee on Earth Observation Satellites.

As he takes charge, the responsibilities facing Kiran Kumar are realisation of Chandrayaan-2 mission where India will attempt to land an indigenous rover on moon, development of the heavy lift GSLV Mk III rocket and filling up the shortfall in communication transponders for satellite television and communications.

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