This post is about my summer intern in ISRO(Indian Space Research organisation), Sriharikota...
As the 4th semester was reaching the end ,we started searching for a summer intern and luckily my friend's dad who is an
engineer in ISRO , sriharikota agreed to arrange an intern in computer networks for us and he just wanted a 5 member team . Since I was learning computer networks at that time(4th sem), I
decided to give a try. Other people from our class also showed some interest in that intern and within few weeks the final 5 member team was
finalised and by the end of semester exams we got confirmation letter from ISRO signed by our HOD.
Sriharikota is located near
sullerpeta, Andhra Pradesh and it’s a two hour journey by train from Chennai. So we got a suburban
train to sullurpeta from chennai central on may 5. While travelling in the train my friend (G) who is well aware of this area told that we
could see ISRO launch pad from the train. As soon as train reached Andhra pradesh border, one of my
friend told us he found lauchpad tower at the horizon...we eagerly looked through windows and waited patiently to
get the glimpse of ISRO, later we
found that it was actually a cellphone
tower..:) As we neared sullerpet, we could see some kind of mushroom
shaped towers across the barren lands. We began guessing about the use of the tower, is it a RADAR
or watch towers or a lauchpad...? With little bit of knowledge about rocket science
we felt that it could not be a RADAR , since it could track vertically moving rockets after some range. finally
we assumed it to be a satellite communication device since it had shape of parabolic
reflector. On reaching sullerpet all
our guesses went wrong, the mushroom tower was actually a water tank for the ISRO
colonies... :)
In sullerpeta, we stayed in our friend house located in the ISRO colony, from there, to reach sriharikota we have to cross the pulicat lake(India’s 2nd
largest brackish lake), but only mode of transportation is by road which is built over sand bed on the
lake. On the first day morning we got the bus to SHAR(Sriharikota High
Altitude Range which is now called as Satish Dhawan Space Centre ) and on the
way we found pulicat lake to be mostly dry and to our surprise there is
hoarding saying that “Do not throw plastics. This is a pulicat lake bird sanctuary”. we could
actually see few flamingos and pelicans scattered over lake. after 15 minutes of travel we entered dense forest
along the sea shore. To our
disappointment no laptops and cameras
were allowed inside SHAR. By late afternoon
we got our id’s , thanks to my friend's dad who helped us getting the things done.
As days went by we could see that SHAR is not a small organisation. Various
departments are separated few miles apart which are connected by a narrow road
which cuts through dense forest and we must need some sort of vehicle
for the travel. One day we missed our bus and in SHAR we could get buses only at specified interval of time. so
with no other way, we started
walking. on the way most of the people from vehicles looked us peculiarly and
we don’t why. we walked 4 km in scorching sun and we were totally dehydrated and it was hard to find a shade
on these roads. with 2 more km to go we rested on the road itself . and finally a van stopped for
us. Inside the van, we came to know that panthers has been spotted around the forest
and no one is allowed to walk on the roads and we were lucky that our timing
didn’t coincide with security patrol or else we would have been caught...:)
Some days ISRO engineers will
take us to various facilities and they patiently explained their usage and workings
,but some were relatively new and
unknown to us ,but somewhat we got an abstract idea about their systems.
Related to computer science ,we saw the implementation of remote monitoring systems , which is one of the core systems of ISRO ,since during the time of the
launch no engineer will be allowed near the launch site , every system will be monitored
from mission control centre(MCC)
through a fibre – optic network.
One of the unforgettable moments happened
during the last day of our stay, my friend's dad took us
to top of launch pad, the breath taking view of bay of Bengal blew us away, we never seen that kind of bluish
tint of the sea .
The internship was over by may 25 , we had loads
of fun during this short span of time and
I am grateful to everyone who made this
summer a memorable one...
.
