Chandrayaan was a turning point The Chinese have a space station, and are sending human missions to space. India has sent a batch of six satellites into space, had a successful Moon mission and started the countdown to Mars. India's future space exploratory plans include 'Aditya' to study solar emissions and 'Astrostat', an ambitious probe to study distant stars.THE WEEK met ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan to...

On a Martian adventure Come November, India will prove its astronomical prowess again with  the Mars Orbiter Mission. If successful, India will be the third nation to find a place in the Mars orbit, joining the US and Russia, and leaving behind China and Japan, which failed earlier.The mission, which was in a conceptual stage during the Chandrayaan-I launch in 2008, was finally approved in August 2012. The launch...

By Ares! Say the word 'alien' and it is the image of a green Martian with bulbous eyes and three fingers in each hand that pops up in the head. Maybe John Carter is to blame. The six-pack light-eyed earthling who visits Mars is one of the more popular Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. The Barsoom series has John leading an army and finding love in Mars. The 2012 Disney feature film, John Carter,...