IISc to Honour Maruthi S. Akella

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will present its Distinguished Alumnus Award to aerospace researcher Maruthi S. Akella on 19 December 2026, recognising his contributions to lunar exploration. IISc will honour four other distinguished alumni at the ceremony.

Research and asteroid naming

Akella’s research group contributed to the onboard guidance algorithm for Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lunar lander mission, which landed on the Moon in February 2024—the first US lunar landing in more than 50 years. In October 2024, the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature approved the name Maruthiakella for minor planet 5376. Discovered in 1990 by S. Ueda and H. Kaneda, it is in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Akella’s other recognitions

Akella completed his Master of Engineering at IISc in 1994 and holds the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2025, India’s Ministry of Science and Technology named him a VAIBHAV Fellow; he was the first honoree in aerospace technologies. His 2026 awards include the AIAA von Kármán Lecture in Astronautics Award and the Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award. The other IISc alumni to be honoured are B.S. Manjunath, Dipankar Das Sarma, Jagannath Nayak and Rajat Moona.

Important Facts for Exams

• CLPS mission: IM-1 was conducted by Intuitive Machines under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme.
• Methalox propulsion: Odysseus used liquid methane and liquid oxygen propulsion, described as the first such use beyond low-Earth orbit and at another celestial body.
• Payload composition: Odysseus carried six NASA scientific instruments and six commercial instruments; five commercial payloads were scientific and one was cultural.
• Minor-planet naming: The minor-planet list says new names are added only after official publication and condemns preannouncements by the IAU’s small-bodies nomenclature group.