Deepana Gandhi, a 26-year-old dreamer from Ooty is a member of Bengaluru-based Team Indus, the only Indian Team to be shortlisted for the $30 Million Google Lunar XPrize Competition. The competition is a race among different teams from various countries to land a privately-financed robotic craft on the Moon by December 2017. She is also the centre of JJ Abrams documentary Moon Shot. The movie traces the backstories of the competing teams. It tells us about Deepana’s journey from school days to present moon mission.
While for the moon mission competition, she, along with a group of people, is a responsible for controlling the spacecraft from the point it gets separated from the launch vehicle, till it touches down on the moon.
“India’s changing. What I have been through is proof of it. Now there are women who are doing well in science and space studies. Soon, there will be an equal number of men and women (in these fields),” she says in her documentary.
When she was doing her MTech at PSG college of Technology, Coimbatore, people challenged her gender role and advised her to stay at home. But her family, particularly her father always encouraged her.
“My dad always said a girl can do what a boy can. That kept me trying. At last, I got the opportunity to prove myself,” she says.
She is incredible! Truly a wonder-woman who turned fiction into reality!
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