THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A perfect Ghazal. If Shyam Mohan were to describe Monday's triumphant Re-usable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) mission thus, you couldn't blame him. The RLV-TD project director who has made ISRO proud sings ghazals, has acted in a K G George movie, and after Monday's mission, has given his native Neyyatinkara something more to boast about.
The son of ex-MLA Narayanan Thampi, Shyam Mohan has been associated with the RLV-TD project from its earliest days. ''In fact, I still have the oldest pencil sketches we made,'' he told Express from Sriharikota after the mission. ''The big challenge was the winged design of the vehicle. ISRO has never done anything like it before. Even the configuration of placing an aircraft-like vehicle atop a rocket was a new one,'' said Shyam, who acted in 'Ee Kanni Koodi,' the 1990 movie by K G George.
Actual work on the RLV-TD - ISRO's first real step toward building a full-fledged space shuttle-like reusable launch vehicle - began eight years ago, and it has been a gruelling journey. Shyam Mohan began as study team leader with this project, then took over as deputy project director, associate project director (Current VSSC director K Sivan was project director then) and, five years ago, as project director. ''The characterisation of the winged design took one-and-a half-years. We conducted 4000 wind tunnel tests alone,'' he said. Among others, the team also carefully studied the US and Russian space shuttle projects so as ''not to repeat mistakes.''
''You see, if we can build an RLV, launch costs can be cut drastically. From US $ 25,000 per kg to US $ 1000 per kg,'' he said.
An alumnus of the Government Engineering College, Thrissur, and the IIT-Madras, Shyam Mohan joined ISRO 31 years ago. Since then, he has been associated with the development of control systems for various launch vehicles including the giant GSLV Mk-III.
For a time in the early 1990s, he also worked with the German aerospace research establishment. Shyam Mohan is married to Seema Shyam, assistant professor at St Thomas Institute of Science and Technology, and they now live at Sasthamangalam in Thiruvananthapuram city. They have a son and a daughter, Sangeeth Shyam and Sarangi Shyam.