REACHING FOR THE STARS : INDIA'S JOURNEY TO MARS AND BEYOND BY PALLAVA BAGLA, SUBHADRA MENON (HARDCOVER)

The exploration of space is a fascinating and exciting field of science and technology. A significant milestone has recently been crossed and that is the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) as India's maiden inter planetary sojourn, conceptualized, designed and executed by India. The mission is a pinnacle of achievement for ISRO. It tells the story of the MOM and of ISRO's experiences in designing and executing this mission with complete indigenous capability. This is the untold story of India's marathon to Mars, from the Red Fort in Delhi to the Red planet. A historic, geo-political dash with its regional rival China, in this 21st century Asian space race. “We have done a lot, but yeh dil maange more.” This evocative challenge, which translated into English, reads “this heart desires more”, this challenge came from India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to scientists and engineers of the Indian space programme when he spoke at India's rocket port in Sriharikota in southern India. Indeed. India's relentless appetite for space faring activities led the country to mount its first ever interplanetary mission, to the Earth's neighbour Mars. The Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan, began a tough and treacherous journey of 690 million kilometers through deep space on 5 November, 2013. Inter-planetary journeys are uncharted territories, inspiring human minds and the machines that are created in a million ways. This is the story of a scintillating 15-month roller-coaster ride, quite literally a hundred meter dash to accomplish a marathon that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) got onto after the historic announcement from the Red Fort in Delhi on 15 July, 2012, that India was heading to Mars, propelling India into an exclusive Martian club. A timely book since India's MOM is scheduled to reach its destination on Sept 24, 2014. Many never before seen photographs of India's space program included at appropriate places with the text.