China is likely to launch its first probe to explore the surface of Mars in 2013, a chief scientist said here Wednesday.
“Mars is the first choice for mankind’s interplanetary explorations as it is the closest Earth-like planet to Earth and could have life and be turned into a habitable place,” Ye Peijian, chief scientist of deep space exploration at the China Academy of Space Technology, told Xinhua.
The mission will use China-made rockets, observation device and detector, said Ye, member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, before the annual session of the country’s top political advisory body, which is scheduled to open Thursday.
China will update and modify its lunar probes to develop a Mars probe, he said.
China likely to launch first probe to explore Mars’ surface in 2013 Xinhua News Agency
Spacecraft capsule on display in Beijing Xinhua News Agency
Parts of Shenzhou 5, China’s first piloted space vehicle which orbited the earth for 21 hours in mid-October, are now on display at an exhibition which opened at the China Centenary Altar, in downtown Beijing, Friday.
Close pass by Mars leaves big impression on Chinese people Xinhua News Agency
The rare occasion of Mars’ closestpass to earth at the end of this month has left the people in China contemplate their distance from the rest of the world in astronomy research. The occasion, astronomers said, was as a touchstone of the Chinese people’s science awareness. Many astronomy fans in the country joined their foreign peers from Aug. 27 to 29 to celebrate the Red Planet’s mere separation of 55.6 million kilometers from earth, and experts said their enthusiasm indicated that Chinese people’s eyes are no longer fixed only on their daily necessities.