China Intends to Launch Its Own Probe to Mars Next Year

China’s space office intends to dispatch a probe to Mars one year from now, following its recent successful landing on the Moon’s far side, as per an announcement from one of the nation’s noticeable space researchers.

The declaration came in front of the meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, basically a governmental advisory group of delegates from over the Chinese political spectrum.

“Over the past 60 years, we’ve made a lot achievements, but there is still a large distance from the world space powers. We must speed up our pace,” Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program, said to the China Global Television Network’s CCTV+. “…China will become the third country that is capable of such task after the United States and Russia. Next year, we will launch a Mars probe, which will orbit around the Mars, land on it and probe it.”

China propelled its first effective satellite in 1970, well behind the U.S. what’s more, Russia, however has rapidly started to get up to speed in space abilities. The first Chinese lunar orbiter, Chang’e 1, propelled in 2007, and most as of late, the Chang’e 4 lander and rover effectively planted onto the furthest side of the Moon. The Chang’e 5 lunar sample return mission is booked to dispatch recently.

The Chinese mission to Mars would join a host of NASA and European Space Agency missions presently investigating or booked to visit the Red Planet. China’s space office is arranging various other profound space missions before 2030, including one to Jupiter, as indicated by Xinhua.

This unnamed mission wouldn’t be China’s first endeavor at achieving Mars. In 2011, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) endeavored to send an orbiter called Yinghuo-1 to the Red Planet, yet the craft, connected to Russia’s Phobos-Grunt mission, neglected to leave Earth’s orbit.