The character arc of Ritu Karidhal
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in 1975 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, into a middle-class family that placed great emphasis on education. Between then and now sit a childhood without coaching institutions or tuition and nothing to rely on but her own motivation, hours spent looking at the night sky, newspaper cuttings about space collected in her teens, a bachelor's and a master's in physics at the University of Lucknow, a master's in aerospace engineering, a post at the Indian Space Research Organisation from 1997, the Mars Orbiter Mission, and two lunar missions. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Ritu Karidhal?
Newspaper cuttings in a drawer, and a landing on the Moon.
She was born in Lucknow into a middle-class family that placed great emphasis on education, one of five children. There were no coaching institutions and no tuition available, and the record is blunt about what that left her: nothing but her own motivation. As a child she knew her interest was space. She spent hours looking at the night sky, wondering how the Moon changes shape and size, studying the stars, wanting to know what lay behind the dark. In her teens she started collecting newspaper cuttings about anything space-related and following what the Indian and American space agencies were doing.
She took a bachelor's and then a master's in physics at the University of Lucknow, enrolled in a doctorate in the same department, taught there, and spent six months as a research scholar. Then she went to the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore for a master's in aerospace engineering.
She joined the Indian Space Research Organisation in 1997. On the Mars Orbiter Mission her job was to conceptualise and execute the craft's onward autonomy system, which runs the satellite's functions by itself in space and responds to malfunctions without being told, and she was deputy operations director of the mission. That mission made India the fourth country to reach Mars, was built in eighteen months and cost a fraction of what such missions usually cost. She was mission director for Chandrayaan 2 and worked on Chandrayaan 3, which in 2023 made India the first country to soft-land at the lunar south pole. She received a young scientist award from a president of India in 2007, a state honour in January 2024, and an honorary doctorate from her old university in 2019.
The moments
Ritu Karidhal's timeline.
The 1980s
A middle-class house in Lucknow
Everyday. Five children, and parents who cared about school.
No coaching, no tuition
Setback, and it changed everything. No tutors and no institutes. Only whatever she could do herself.
The 1990s
Cuttings in a drawer
Milestone, and it changed everything. A teenager cutting space stories out of the paper and keeping them.
Physics, twice
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Two physics degrees, and then teaching in the same department.
Teach, or apply to the institute
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go to Bangalore, taken, or finish the doctorate. She joined the space agency in 1997 and became deputy operations director of a mission to Mars.
Aerospace at the institute
Milestone, and it changed everything. The hardest science institute in the country, and she got in from Lucknow.
She joins ISRO
Milestone, and it changed everything. Into the space agency she had been collecting cuttings about.
The 2000s
A young scientist award
Milestone. The award handed over by a president who had been a space scientist himself.
The 2010s
The autonomy system for Mars
Milestone, and it changed everything. The part of the spacecraft that thinks for itself when nobody can reach it.
Fourth country to Mars
Milestone, and it changed everything. Eighteen months, a fraction of the usual cost, and it worked.
Mission director
Milestone, and it changed everything. Mission director on a lunar mission, and an honorary doctorate from her own university.
The 2020s
The lunar south pole
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first soft landing at the lunar south pole by anybody.
A state honour
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Her own state, honouring the girl who had no coaching in it.
Lucknow had no coaching institutes and produced a mission director anyway. What it has set moving is on the surface of the Moon: the first soft landing anybody has made at the lunar south pole, worked on by a woman who learned what a space agency was from newspaper cuttings.
Your turn
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Ritu Karidhal: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Ritu Karidhal's life come from?
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Sources
- Ritu Karidhal, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Indian Space Research Organisation records for the Mars Orbiter Mission and Chandrayaan 2 and 3.
- University of Lucknow honorary doctorate records, 2019.