China Releases 4 Outer Space Probe Plans, Including Mars Probe

Storyline China has published four outer space probe plans for the near future on Tuesday, and made public a plan for developing heavy lift carrier rockets, said Wu Yanhua, deputy director of China National Space Administration. He made the statement at a press conference on Tuesday on the occasion of the release of a white paper on China space activities in 2016 and major tasks for the next five years, titled “China’s Space Activities in 2016.“ “Our future deep space probe projects consist of four major tasks. First, we will launch our first Mars probe around 2020. Based on that, we will plan for a second probe mission on Mars, bringing back samples from Mars, and carrying out scientific analysis and researches on the structure, material content, the environment on Mars. And, for the other two tasks, we will carry out an asteroid exploration and an exploration to Jupiter and another planet,“ said Wu. The deputy director said China is working on the research a