Ahead of the anticipated Chandrayaan-3 landing, Shanmuga Subramanian, a software developer based in Chennai, who gained international attention in 2019 for pinpointing the debris of the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s Vikram lander, is actively engaged in preparations. With the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) embarking on a historic lunar surface landing, Subramanian will closely monitor the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s landing, set to occur on Wednesday.
Subramanian’s breakthrough came in December 2019 when he successfully identified the elusive debris of the Chandrayaan-2 lander, a feat that had eluded both ISRO and NASA scientists. Armed with a standard laptop, Subramanian meticulously compared old and new lunar surface images, employing a pixel-by-pixel approach. His unorthodox method led to the discovery of a singular anomaly, ultimately identified as part of the Vikram lander.
During the identification process, NASA issued a statement confirming Subramanian’s achievement, acknowledging his role in contacting the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) project with the positive identification of the debris. Subramanian leveraged variations in light reflection to differentiate natural formations from human-made artifacts, culminating in his remarkable discovery.
Currently employed at a Chennai-based software company, Subramanian has been busily preparing for the upcoming Chandrayaan-3 landing. In conversation with The Indian Express, he expressed his excitement for the event, revealing his intention to take leave to observe the entire landing process. He has already generated digital elevation models of the landing site, incorporating details of surrounding craters and mountains using coordinates provided by ISRO.
Subramanian elaborated on his approach, stating, “That is how I measure the height differences of the surrounding terrain – for example, the depth of craters or the height of mountains. I use Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS) and PDS4 viewer to process images through NASA software and to open original ISRO images.”
Although he holds a degree in mechanical engineering, Subramanian’s career trajectory has revolved around the IT sector for the past 15 years. Alongside his IT pursuits, he has engaged in various technological endeavors, including designing apps for tsunami alerts and maintaining a popular Facebook page dedicated to weather forecasts in Chennai.
