The concept of time and life is much different for Dr. Amitabha Ghosh, the first ‘earthling’ to have studied the soil of another planet. He speaks to Priyal Dave about the new rover for Mars Exploration mission, his personal life and his thoughts about IIT and its engineers.
GHOSH is amongst those who feel that a brand must not be diluted by opting for expansion, that life is really just a speck of time and that space exploration is not fast paced, not due to lack of technology but due to lack of a business model for someone to invest astronomical amounts of money.
Though presently in Washington today, where he lives with his wife Anuradha and their seven-year-old son Ayan, last Thursday, dressed in a deep blue T-shirt with a NASA logo and grey trousers, Dr. Amitabha Ghosh’s unassuming self walked into the Press Club near Azad Maidan, much before his audience arrived, to check if everything was in place for the press conference. With a power point presentation and his notes on ‘Curiosity’ – the latest rover to Mars in place, this planetary geologist opened a huge box to take out a miniature model of the rover. The conference was to announce the launch of Curiosity, later this year.
Everything about this rover, which will look for habitability on Mars, once it lands on the planet on August 5 or 6, 2012, and the previous rovers to Mars, fascinates Dr. Ghosh, who landed up with the project by accident and not by choice.
“After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, I went to the US for an internship, but that project got shelved and I chanced upon the Mars Rover Exploration mission,” shares the soft spoken man. The melody in his voice immediately reminds one of Bengal of which he has fond memories.
Recalling his childhood which was spent growing up in Salt Lake, Kolkata and studying at Don Bosco, Dr. Ghosh says, “It was only after class six did I start taking interest in school. My interest in planets developed greatly due to the frequent father-son visits to the planetarium with my father, who was trained as a nuclear physicist but went on to become a banker. Later, I studied geology at IIT Kharagpur only to realize that whatever was to be found out about the surface of earth was already found. I needed to discover something else and that got me interested in astro-geology.”
Remembering his days at IIT, the planetary geologist, who says he would have been an entrepreneur if not at NASA, shares, “The best thing about IIT and what makes that entire brand so special is the students. You actually learn so much from your peers. You have the most unconventional people coming there and studying engineering which is not only fascinating and but also inspiring.”
Having dedicated 15 years of his life in exploring and studying Mars, Dr. Ghosh’s concepts of life and time as we perceive have changed. “Life is finite as we live only for a moment…a tiny speck of time. The universe has an age of 13 billion years, of which man, lives only for 50 years, on an average. So how long is our life anyway? And this is what makes our life even more precious. We must do what we really like doing because you only get to live once,” he remarks with a smile.
Dr. Ghosh has been doing exactly what he likes doing for the last fifteen years. “What fascinates me about my profession is that I wake up every morning to see a part of the universe which no one sees, and will not get to see in the near future. I consider myself to be among one of those lucky people who see a part of the universe everyday as part of the profession,” adds the geologist.
Another fact that he is extremely proud about, and any Indian would be, is that he is the only ‘earthling’ to have analyzed the first ever Martian rock which was incidentally the first rock ever, to be analyzed from another planet. Every time this is mentioned, Dr. Ghosh smiles radiantly, accepting the unique privilege humbly.
Agreeing that exploration of the our solar system alone is going at a very slow pace as compared to the deterioration of our own planet, Dr. Ghosh reasons out that it is the lack of a business model and not technology which is holding us back. “Aviation picked up because someone could figure out a business model in transporting people from one place to another.” He further adds, “Habitability can be created, as it was done in Antarctica as well as in Las Vegas, (the former being very cold and the latter being very hot). But there has to be a business model which can create huge revenue, which in case of space exploration is yet to be developed.”
Extremely polite and patient while answering questions, Dr. Ghosh has the tact to make ‘rocket science’ sound easy. His enthusiasm about exploring Mars and habitability on the red planet keeps him involved in exploration projects which sometimes take five years, but which can blow up in as less as five seconds. Despite the odds, like every one else at NASA, he waits for ‘Curiosity’ to land successfully on Mars by early August next year.
priyal.dave@afternoondc.in
Dr. Amitabha Ghosh’s profile
A planetary geologist working on Mars Missions, Dr. Ghosh serves as a Chair of the Science Operations Working Group for the Mars Exploration Rover mission and plans rover activities on Mars. He works on tactical rover operations including rover driving and science experiments. Besides, he also interprets atmospheric sciences and geological data of the landing sites on Mars. The geologist is also interested in the physics of Solar System formation and works on the thermal evolution of asteroids and planets.