Projects

Summer 2025

I was fortunate to return to the Space Application Centre, ISRO, for my summer internship, continuing my work under the guidance of Sri. Satadru Bhattacharya. This year, my project was directly tied to India's upcoming Venus Orbiter mission.

The project's goal was to support the VSEAM (Venus Surface Emissivity and Altimeter Mapper) instrument, which is designed to map the Venusian surface by peering through a narrow transparent window in the planet's thick atmosphere (near 1μm). To do this accurately, the VSEAM science team needs a reference library of what different minerals "look like" at Venus's extreme surface temperatures (~470°C).

My task was to help build this foundational high-temperature spectral library. I used the same state-of-the-art equipment as last year—the Bruker Vertex 80v FT-IR Spectrometer and Hyperion 3000 FT-IR microscope, integrated them with a Linkam THMS600 temperature control stage. This setup allowed me to heat Venusian analogue minerals like Natrojarosite, Selenite (Gypsum), and Hematite from room temperature up to 500°C, measuring their spectral properties at each step.

The core of the project involved measuring the spectral reflectance (R) and then using Kirchhoff's Law of thermal radiation (E = 1 - R) to derive the spectral emissivity (E). This is critical because minerals change drastically at high temperatures. For example, my analysis showed Selenite dehydrates into Anhydrite, and Natrojarosite fully decomposes. Using a standard, room-temperature library to interpret data from Venus would lead to complete misidentification.

The final result was a preliminary high-temperature spectral emissivity library for these minerals. This library serves as a vital 'answer key' to help the VSEAM team correctly interpret the data from Venus. It also provides the essential input data needed to build high-fidelity Radiative Transfer (RT) models that simulate what the orbiter will actually see through the thick atmosphere.

Project continuity: This work was a direct continuation of the thermodynamic analysis I began during my 2024 internship. It was incredibly rewarding to apply those foundational skills to a systematic, mission-focused objective and create a data product that will directly support the Venus orbiter mission.

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Summer 2024

I did my summer internship under Sri. Satadru Bhattacharya, at Space Application Centre, ISRO.

On our planet, Earth, there exist such extreme environments, which are comparable to the environments on other celestial bodies; such places are called planetary analogues; during my internship, I analyzed a few of these analogues, like the samples from Puga Valley, a Venusian analogue and sample from Shimla slate, a potential lunar analogue, along with some thin sections of meteorites and thin section from other geological structure.

I had hands-on experience with the state-of-the-art equipment at ISRO, Vertex 80v FTIR spectrometer and Hyperion 3000 FTIR microscope. Also, the accessories used alongside this equipment allow us to use different measurement techniques. The spectrometer uses a Michelson interferometer and computationally applies the Fourier transform to the interferogram to acquire spectra over the whole range quickly. Meanwhile, the microscope combines the capabilities of a standard microscope and a spectrometer. Hence, we can zoom into a sample and take spectra of the areas of interest.

The aim was to do a thermodynamic analysis of the Venusian analogue by subjecting the sample to Venus-like temperatures (~465°C)  and recording the spectra to study the changes caused by the temperature of the spectrum, which will be observed by a probe/satellite doing these measurements on Venus.

I also did thermodynamic analysis of the (potential) lunar analogue, by subjecting it to lunar temperatures (~ -200°C).

The result was a thorough analysis of the Venusian and Lunar analogues using the FTIR setup and the documentation of the changes in spectra observed with temperature change. The result of this study can be helpful for the analysis of data acquired by probes visiting Venus or the Moon.

Fun fact: one day during my internship, an actual lunar sample was analyzed on this instrument; that sample was probably collected during the Apollo 16 mission, and the sample was procured from NASA.

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Winter 2023-24

I did an internship at NISER under Dr. Subhankar Mishra, during the Hackdunio 3.0 event, it was a project centered around Computer Science and Robotics where we initially gave a proposal which got accepted in August. We then worked on the proposed idea in the month of December to create a prototype. 

The aim was to make an ML-augmented walking stick for the visually impaired. The ML augmentation was centered around object detection/classification, and using additional sensors and (vibrating) actuators to help sense the surrounding environment.

This project gave me an insight into the basics of laboratory work and working with different electrical components (SBCs and modules like LiDAR), and the implementation of machine learning.

The result was a pre-trained model optimized to run an inference using limited computational resources because the apparatus needed to be power-efficient and mobile.