From Chennai to the Cosmos: How IIT Madras Helped NASA and ISRO Fine-Tune a Landmark Satellite Mission
- Neha Kumari
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Indian institute was up to the mark of its scientific expertise when it added a new feather to its cap and provided invaluable scientific knowledge during the collaboration of two great space bodies of the world- ISRO and NASA with an ambitious project upon a satellite mission.
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), one of the premier technical institutions in India was also instrumental in getting a fine-tuning of this mission with the anticipated objective of transforming our knowledge of the coastal systems across the globe.
Common to this international cooperation was Professor Manikandan Mathur of the department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, whose input on a crucial question of when, where and how frequently the satellite will capture the coastal imagery was very critical.
His contribution integrated into the design of the missions and assisted in streamlining one of the most complicated examples of the Earth observation projects in several decades.
NASA-ISRO satellite Mission (NISAR)
The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite is a revolutionary Earth monitoring mission that will gather information on natural disasters, changes in the environment, climate change, and melting of ice sheets.
What is more ambitious is that it will examine the land and ocean surfaces that cover the Earth with unrivaled precision and frequency and this unrivalled knowledge and detailed analysis will be significant in a world that is warming, fast changing.
However, it does not even end there in building such a satellite. The mission could work only when the scientists understood where and how frequently to focus its sensors, the more so on the complicated coast areas, which are both ecologically sensitive and vital economically.
This is where IIT Madras was involved.
Accuracy at the coasts of India
It was the work of Professor Manikandan Mathur and his group of IIT Madras who collaborated with ISRO and NASA to study the coastal areas, especially those prone to erosion, floods, and rising sea level.
His work assisted in establishing key timelines within which the satellite must concentrate on such areas in order to capture the seasonal changes, storm and tidal variability.
His group came up with scientific models that determined the times when coastal features could be the clearest and the options of certain weather and sea conditions as regards clarity of the pictures.
That assisted the engineers to programme the satellite sensors in order to maximize on the quality of the data obtained so that the right images can be obtained at the right time.
With time being of paramount importance in that type of mission, the recommendations went as far as defining how the radar systems of the satellite operated over a coastal region not only in India but also around the world.
India in the Emerging Space Science Supremacy on an International Platform
The partnership of IIT Madras in the NISAR project is not simply a technical one- it is an indication of how the Indian scientific community is finding itself an integrated and respected voice in the research through space.
It also demonstrates the capability of India in marine and coastal engineering which is an area that one can no longer ignore due to increasing sea level and frequent cyclones.
Indian scientists such as Professor Mathur are realizing the limit of interdisciplinary research by merging data modelling of oceans and applications in the aerospace industries.
Nowadays, when the world is facing the issue of climate uncertainty, the capability to track the coast of the planet in real-time could save millions of human lives and even billions of dollars in destruction. And it is no longer that India is simply putting rockets into orbit but it is also helping to determine where the rockets look and when they fire.
A Proud Moment of Indian Academia
This is not the first time IIT Madras is in the limelight of the world regarding the recognition of global worth, but it is one of the finest moments. It is a proud moment of every student, professor, as well as the Indian citizen that believes that education and innovation could transform the world.
Professor Manikandan Mathur makes us aware that the major contribution is not necessarily done by the person pushing the launch button but it is the people who are working behind the scenes to ensure that the launch is successful.
This is India talking to the world about science, in the lab in Chennai and at the fringes of our orbit, the voice of the scientists who may just turn it up a notch.
📅 By News Anek Digital Desk | August 3, 2025
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