Mission Over Mars

ISA scientist Moushami Ghosh faces her biggest setback when her team loses contact with India’s ChandraViman-1 while China’s mission to the moon succeeds. As India sets its eyes on Mars, China once again beats it with another successful mission even before Moushami and her team can get approval for India’s Mars mission.

The PMO office agrees to fund M.O.M on the condition that the mission is launched within 18 months. The ISA agrees to this condition. Team M.O.M, headed by Nandita, must now prove the skeptics wrong and make M.O.M a success.

Nandita is devasted when the Centre allocates only USD 75 Million for the entire mission. She tries some cost-cutting measures but still finds it difficult to work within the limited budget. Later, MSLV fails its first test launch. Can ISA afford a second test launch?

After MSLV fails the test for the second time, Moushami suggests that they use the tried and test ESLV instead. But it only has a success rate of 36 percent. Will Nandita and her team be able to pull off a third test launch?

In the review meeting, Moushumi and her team fail to present their complete plan. Moushumi offers to step down as she may have overestimated her capabilities. Later, Gautam offers to seek the help of the American space agency, but Dr. Murlidharan is adamant about keeping M.O.M a 100 % Indian program.

Dr. Gokhale complains to the PMO office about procedural irregularities in the M.O.M mission. Dr. Murlidharan speaks to the team and finds out that taking care of the irregularity would mean delaying the mission by 8 months. The entire mission now risks being shelved.

The ISA scientists visit the PMO to seek approval for international co-operation for the mission. But the request gets stuck due to bureaucracy. The team tries to find a way around this. Later, just a few minutes before the launch, the mission is aborted due to bad weather. The M.O.M is declared dead for now.