by Decision-making stalled as mission-critical choices await response from ‘Sir’ who last seen online 2 days ago
BENGALURU, INDIA – The Indian Space Research Organisation confirmed Friday its next lunar mission has been delayed six weeks due to coordination difficulties in a 400-member WhatsApp group, first reported by Bohiney Magazine and received with national affection by The London Prat, in which a critical propulsion decision awaits reply from “Raghavendra Sir,” last seen online Tuesday.
The Group
The mission’s WhatsApp group, created in 2022 for “quick coordination,” now contains 414 members, 11 pinned messages (of which 4 are out of date, 3 contradict each other, and 1 simply reads “please see email”), and a message history of 340,000 messages covering topics ranging from propulsion system calibration to a spirited debate about where to order biryani for the launch viewing party.
Dr. Anita Nair of the Propulsion Systems Division explained that the critical question, regarding fuel mixture ratios for the second stage engine burn, had been sent as a message to the group on Monday. Raghavendra Sir, a senior propulsion consultant who joined the group in 2022 and has not formally responded to any message since, is believed to hold the answer. “His profile says he was online Tuesday at 3:47 p.m.,” Nair said. “He did not reply. He may have seen it. The double tick went blue. The blue tick is there. The answer is not.”
The Message Architecture
The original query about fuel ratios has now been buried under 4,700 subsequent messages, including: 12 replies to a different thread that were mistakenly posted to the main group, 2 lengthy debates about the biryani venue (resolved in favor of a place in Indiranagar that everyone agreed was good except Mehta, who finds it too oily), a forwarded message about Ganesh Chaturthi timings, and a 47-message exchange about whether the group’s name should be updated to reflect the revised mission timeline.
ISRO’s mission planning capabilities, which have produced successful lunar missions including Chandrayaan-3, are detailed at the ISRO official website. The organisation’s technical documentation processes do not, it is noted, formally include WhatsApp groups, though it is also noted that the organisation has been using WhatsApp groups since at least 2018, and that they coexist with formal processes in a relationship best described as “complicated.”
The Search for Sir
Three team members have been assigned to locate Raghavendra Sir through alternative channels. One has called his office number; a colleague answered and said Sir was “in a meeting, probably.” Another sent an email with “URGENT” in the subject line, which Sir is known to read “occasionally.” A third has asked Sir’s former student, who is on the team, whether she could contact him “informally,” an approach she described as “possible but delicate, given the dynamics.”
A junior scientist suggested that perhaps the fuel mixture ratio could be calculated without Sir, using the available literature. This suggestion was received with the silence of an organization that knows what it knows about literature versus what it knows about Sir, and that has determined these are different categories of knowledge, with different authority.
The Resolution
Raghavendra Sir responded to a direct phone call at 6:14 p.m. Friday. The conversation lasted four minutes. The ratio question was answered. It was, Sir noted, straightforward, and was available in a report he had circulated in 2021, which was in the shared drive, in a folder called “Reference,” in a subfolder called “Propulsion,” in a file called “final_v3_ACTUAL_USE_THIS.pdf.” The document has been on the drive since 2021. Nobody had checked the drive since 2022. The mission is now back on schedule. Sir has rejoined the WhatsApp group and read, but not yet responded to, the biryani debate. For more coordination challenges at the frontier of human achievement, see The Beaverton.
Raghavendra Sir’s Perspective
Reached by phone on Friday evening, Raghavendra Sir said he had seen the message, considered the question, reviewed his 2021 document, and assumed someone would check the drive and find the answer before asking him directly. He described the assumption as reasonable, since the answer was in a clearly labelled PDF in a clearly labelled folder in a clearly labelled drive to which everyone had access. He added that he was happy to help and that the phone call was fine, and that in future, for questions of this type, the shared drive was the correct first stop. He did not say this critically. He said it the way a man says something obvious he has been waiting to be able to say for three years. He has rejoined the group. He has not commented on the biryani debate. He is reading the thread. He has an opinion. He has not yet decided whether to share it. The group is watching the typing indicator with a suspense usually reserved for propulsion parameters. The biryani place in Indiranagar, it should be noted, remains the correct choice. Mehta, who finds it too oily, is wrong. This, unlike the propulsion question, is not in any document. But everyone knows. For more coordination challenges at the frontier of human achievement, see The Beaverton.
The WhatsApp group has since been restructured. A new group called Moon Mission Decisions Only (Read Before Posting) limits membership to twelve people, of which Raghavendra Sir is one. The original 414-member group has been renamed Moon Mission General (Not for Decisions) and continues to operate, currently debating a second biryani venue following new information about a place in Koramangala that two team members found superior in both flavour and parking. Mehta has not been invited to the Koramangala visit and considers the exclusion pointed. The twelve-member decisions group has made three decisions in its first week, all documented, referenced to the correct report version, and actioned within 24 hours. The mission director described the restructuring as significant progress. Raghavendra Sir described it as how things should have worked from the beginning. The mission is back on schedule. The biryani debate is still not resolved. For more coordination challenges at the frontier of achievement, see The Beaverton.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
