ISAS Working Papers

Over the years, Mars has been the centre of attraction for science fiction writers, Hollywood movie makers, astrologers, astronomers and the scientific community. For scientists and technologists, Mars continues to be an enigma. This is essentially because even tough humans have dreamt for long about human colonisation of Mars. Still, in reality humans are nowhere near to realising such a dream. During the last five decades, more than fifty percent of human efforts to send an unmanned spacecraft to hover in the vicinity of Mars or to land on the Martian surface have failed. Interestingly, in September 2014 India, a developing state, succeeded in placing its own satellite in the Martian orbit in its first attempt, an achievement unequalled by any other country. India's success has won significant international acclaim and has significantly raised expectations about its overall space programme. This paper attempts to understand the rationale behind India's Mars agenda and its implications and discusses its progress towards success.