India began a countdown to the launch of its most ambitious space mission to date, sending a probe to Mars. The project was conceived in just 15 months on a tiny budget. After a recent Chinese attempt flopped, India seeks to make a statement of its technological prowess by becoming the first Asian power to reach the Red Planet. An unmanned probe about the size of a large refrigerator will leave earth strapped to an Indian rocket which is set to blast off November 5. Wrapped in a golden film, the orbiter will carry advanced sensors to measure the Martian atmosphere. Success would be a source of national pride for Indians, whose 2008 unmanned mission to the moon helped prove the existence of water.
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