Bengaluru youth bags key space professional award

BENGALURU: Saroj Kumar, an Indian-origin research scientist in the US and an alumnus of Bengaluru's Reva Institute of Engineering and Communication, has been selected by the Space and Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) for its "20 Under 35" 2022 list. The distinguished list highlights 20 outstanding young space and satellite professionals aged below 35 years to watch for in the years ahead.
SSPI is pegged as the space industry's largest, most international and cross-disciplinary network of individuals and companies. After graduating from Reva institute, a college affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Kumar moved to the US to pursue his masters.
Currently, he is a space mission designer for advanced propulsion systems at the Propulsion Research Centre in the University of Alabama in Huntsville, US and is working for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) for its technology demonstration missions programme (based at the Marshall Space Flight Centre) on the nuclear thermal propulsion system for human and robotic exploration missions.
Kumar said he has bagged other awards, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Graduate Student of the Year award, 2021, best research paper award at Nuclear and Engineering Technologies for Space (NETS), 2021, outstanding researcher award, Centre for Space Research and Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) in 2012.
He told TOI: "In 2017, I was part of the first all-Indian crew selected for a Mars mission simulation at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), the Mars analog research base in Utah, USA. I was the crew scientist for the mission and worked on human-associated microbial contamination of Mars samples of interest and developing zoning methodology for planetary protection protocols for future human missions to Mars."
Kumar did his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalayas in multiple Indian cities as his father served in the Indian Army.
Between 2010 and 2014, Kumar worked at NMIT's Centre for Space Research. During this time, he was the team leader for attitude determination and control systems for small satellites.
-Tarunya Sanjay