China yesterday successfully completed a lander test in Hebei Province ahead of an uncrewed exploration mission to Mars next year.
China is on track to launch its Mars mission next year, China National Space Administration Director Zhang Kejian (張克儉) said.
Zhang was speaking ahead of the hovering-and-obstacle avoidance test for the lander.
Photo: AP
The journey through space will take about seven months, while landing will take seven minutes, said Zhang Rongqiao (張榮橋), chief architect of the Mars exploration program.
The test was conducted at a sprawling landing test site in Huailai, northwest of Beijing.
China has developed the powerful Long March 5 rocket to transport the probe to Mars.
The same rocket is meant to deliver the Chang’e-5 probe to the moon this year or early next year to bring back rock samples.
The Chang’e-4 probe successfully touched down on the far side of the moon in January, a historic first and a major achievement for China’s space program.
China made its first lunar landing in 2013. It expects to complete a modular space station by about 2022, around the time when NASA is said to start building a new space station laboratory to orbit the moon as a pit stop for missions to other parts of the solar system.
In 2003, China became the third nation to put a man in space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the US.
Since then, it has been racing to catch up with the US and Russia to become a major space power by 2030.
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