China unveiled its most ambitious project ever yet as the country plans to land on the moon by 2018 and orbit Mars by 2020. This is not the first time the country has explored space given that China's first mission was back in 2003.
China is the third country to successfully land on the Moon and being the fifth in the world to circuit Mars, just lagging behind the US, Russia, Europe, and India. They also built the world's largest telescope and launched an environmentally friendly, new generation Long March-7 carrier rocket into space in June.
In August 2016, it also beefed up its space exploration programs with launching Micius, the world's first quantum-enabled satellite, named after the famous Chinese scientist and philosopher himself. On the same month, China's rover Jade Rabbit shuts down after being on the moon for almost three years.
According to BBC News, the rover has its blog and social media accounts detailing its journey to the moon. The Jade Rabbit sent its last message saying, "The Moon has prepared a long dream for me."
Following their expedition, the Tiangong 2 Space Laboratory was launched in September with Shenzhou 11 propelling to land on its docks. Two astronauts stayed at the station for 30 days, denoting the country's longest stay in space.
Two years after the country's exploration of Mars, China plans to build a permanent space station in 2022. And three years afterward, there will be more manned explorations by the country.
Will there be more plans? China would like to position itself as a competing country, taking against US and Russia to explore the galaxy. It is stated in news report by Express UK that they also wanted to explore Jupiter to research on the evolution of outer space and if there is the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
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