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India vies for elite role in space with Mars trip

Monday - 11/4/2013, 4:42pm  ET

In this Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013 photo, Chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) K. Radhakrishnan holds a model of Mars orbiter at his office in New Delhi, India. India is aiming to join the world's deep-space pioneers with a journey to Mars that it hopes will showcase its technological ability to travel our solar system while seeking solutions for everyday problems on Earth. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) -- India is aiming to join the world's deep-space pioneers with a journey to Mars that it hopes will showcase its technological ability to explore the solar system while seeking solutions for everyday problems on Earth.




Radhakrishnan admits the aim is high. This is India's first Mars mission, and no country has been fully successful on its first try. More than half the world's attempts to reach Earth's planetary neighbor -- 23 out of 40 missions -- have failed, including missions by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011.

If India can pull it off, it will demonstrate a highly capable space program that belongs within an elite club of governments exploring outer space.



Some of the data will complement research expected to be conducted with a spacecraft NASA will launch later this month, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, nicknamed MAVEN.


If successful, the two new orbiters would join three already circling Mars -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express. On the Martian surface, NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers are rolling across rocky terrain.







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