India Prepares for Upcoming Launch of Martian Probe

India is on track to launch its first interplanetary probe Tuesday in a bid to become one of the few nations to have landed a rover on the Red Planet. 

The Mars Orbiter Spacecraft is scheduled to take off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andra Pradesh, located roughly 80 kilometers north of Chennai.

According to The Hindu Business Line, the mission "is more for image building -- the benefits of which will not be immediately apparent." Should it succeed, the news outlet notes, it will surpass China and Japan, both of which attempted and failed to launch similar probes. The UK's Beagle 2 separated from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter in 2003, at which point all contact was lost. In all, 23 out of 40 missions have failed, with no country succeeding of their first try.

K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO), told The Associated Press the mission is largely a "technology demonstration" that still carries with it scientific benefits.

"We want to use the first opportunity to put a spacecraft and orbit it around Mars and, once it is there safely, then conduct a few meaningful experiments and energize the scientific community," he said.

The Mars Orbiter Mission will take 10 months to reach the Red Planet, at which point it will join the ranks of Curiosity and Opportunity in investigating Mars' surface. Among other things, the rover will search for methane -- a hallmark of life and something NASA has come up decidedly empty-handed on.

Portions of the probe's data will complement the research set to begin shortly by the NASA probe known as the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN.

"We're pulling for India," Bruce Jakosky, project leader for the U.S. spacecraft, told The Assocaited Press. "The more players we have in space exploration the better."

Of the difficulties of space travel, Jakosky said: "I know I'm an absolute wreck with ours coming up in two weeks...There are 10,000 things that need to go right in order for it to succeed, and it can take only one thing going wrong for it to fail."