China to conquer Mars in the 2020

China last Thursday successfully completed a crucial landing test in northern Hebei province ahead of a historic unmanned exploration mission to Mars next year.

China is on track to launch its mission to Mars, he said Thursday Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, speaking with foreign diplomats and the media before the test.

The Mars lander was subjected to an obstacle flight avoidance test at a site in Huailai, northwest of Beijing. The site was littered with small mounds of rocks to simulate the uneven terrain of Mars.

"In 2016, China officially started work on Mars exploration and currently all development projects are running smoothly," said Zhang.

“The obstacle avoidance test for the Mars lander is a crucial part of the development process. The space program expects China's first Mars exploration mission to take place in 2020. "

China has developed the powerful Long March 5 rocket to transport the probe to Mars in the 2020.

The journey into space will take about seven months, while landing will take seven minutes, said Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the Mars exploration program. Landing will be the hardest and most challenging phase, he said.

The Long March 5 rocket itself is expected to carry the Chang'e-5 probe to the moon by late 2019 or early next year to bring back samples of lunar rocks.

The Chang'e-4 probe successfully landed on the far side of the moon in January this year, a first and important milestone for the Chinese space program.

China made its first lunar landing in the 2013.

China plans to complete a modular space station around 2022, around the time NASA is expected to begin building a new space laboratory to orbit the moon, a kind of pit stop for missions elsewhere in the solar system.

In 2003, China became the third nation to send a man into space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Since then, the competition has been on to reach Russia and the United States and become a major space power by 2030.

"China is currently actively planning and preparing a number of major space programs including a Red Planet sampling mission, asteroid exploration missions, and many other lunar missions.“Said the head of the space administration.

China to conquer Mars in the 2020