Soil to Sky : K. Sivan

“And blended pulsing life with lives long done 

Till time seemed fiction, Past and the Present one.”

Till time seemed fiction, Past and Present one, making things happen, which we hoped but we didn’t imagine, we would. Rakesh Sharma from space said ‘Saare Jahan se achha Hindustaan humara’, wondering the day is not far away when someone from the Indian Space Station will say it, or even India reaches other planets or unexplored objects of this Vyom! Imagine time-travel be made possible, or we coming up with our own Dyson Sphere! This all sounds so fictional, but you never know, mystery and blended pulsing life with lives long done, till time seemed fiction, Past and the Present one.

Well ISRO and the team of its dedicated scientists have been striving hard to reach milestones. All of us know that this is the space organisation which carried its components on bullock carts, now is fifty years old, making World records and India proud. The story of ISRO and its people, you might say is much like a fictional happy ending novel, but it had its own struggles and having a lot more to come. Today, we would like to take you to the inspiring journey of Sir K. Sivan, as we present you Soil to Sky!

The farmer’s son who reached the sky. Yes, we are talking about the present chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, the rocket scientist from Tamil Nadu, Kailasavadivoo Sivan. The man who was hugged by PM Modi for his exuberant management at the launch of Chandrayaan 2, has a very inspiring life journey filled with abounding accomplishments. 

 Born in Mela Sarakkalvilai, near Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu in India on 14 April 1957, Sir was a self-subsisting, independent and a hard working person. Studied in a Tamil medium local government school and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology in 1980, Sivan was the first graduate in his family. This space scientist finished his master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1982, and started working in ISRO. He also earned a doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2006. Being a fellow of various diversified societies like the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Aeronautical Society of India, the Systems Society of India and the Indian systems society for science and engineering, K. Sivan is a picture of crown diligence.  With his expertise in all areas pertaining to launching vehicles, he has also published a book titled “Integrated Design for Space Transportation System” in the year 2015.

Sir joined ISRO in 1982 and was inducted into Polar Space Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project.Being specialized in Aerospace engineering, Space transportation systems engineering, Launch vehicle and Mission design, Control & Guidance design, Mission simulation software design and Mission synthesis, simulation, analysis and validation of flight systems, he has significantly contributed towards end to end mission fulfillment. Initially he was appointed the director ofISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems and later became the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. On January, 2018 Sivan was appointed the chief of Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) hence becoming the ninth head of the 50-year-old organization. Apart from this, he had also been appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Space and the Chair of the Space Commission. He was excellent in planning, designing, integration and analysis of missions.

During his 3-decade long career, he has been a part of many prestigious missions including GSLV, PSLV, and GSLV MkIII apart from being a project director of GSLV rocket. He is also the chief architect of 6D trajectory simulation software, SITARA, which is the backbone of the real-time and non-real-time trajectory simulations of all ISRO launch vehicles. He was responsible for commissioning world-class simulation facility in ISRO for mission synthesis and analysis, which is used for mission design, sub-system level validation and integrated validation of avionics systems in all ISRO launch vehicles. He developed and implemented an innovative “day-of launch wind biasing strategy” that enables rocket launch on any day even under varied weather and wind conditions. He was the chief mission architect for successful launch of 104 satellites in a single mission of PSLV. During his tenure as ISRO Chairman, he oversaw two key missions-Chandrayaan-2 and the developmental flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-MK3).

For K.Sivan’s contribution to space research, he has received many awards, including the Shri Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research Award in 1999, ISRO Merit Award in 2007, and Dr. Biren Roy Space Science Award in 2011 and Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam Award in 2019.

When hoping turns into reality and dreams seems to come true. Indeed, the true and dedicated efforts of these cherished personalities could make this possible where the Indian Space Centre would dive into the unchartered galaxies making things similar to all our imaginable fiction and fantasies, setting us unbounded to explore the depth of this cosmos!

We at IEEE are pleased to complete our glorious seven years on 10 May, 2020. To celebrate, we are having an e-fest from 6-10 May, 2020 with all the information available at our website. To further keep the spirits high and our blogging efforts, we have “INQUIZITIVE: In the name of your Degree”, which is an online quiz on technical blogs. Please refer the website/brochure for more details. 

Happy reading!