After landing a rover on Mars, China wants to go to other planets in the solar system. China hopes to launch a pair of spaceships in the early 20th century to explore Jupiter and Uranus.
A Long March 5 rocket will be used to launch a pair of probes, one heading towards Jupiter and the other going further out towards Uranus. Wang Qiong gave a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris on Wednesday detailing the details of the mission. The China National Space Administration has a lunar exploration and space engineering center.
The Chinese plan is to use a Venus flyby followed by two Earth flybys to get the craft to the outer solar system. One of the spacefaring duo will enter into an elliptical path around the Jovian moon Callisto and the other will follow it. The duo may look at an asteroid before they separate. China has only sent one mission to Mars as part of its interplanetary program.
China has a program named after an ancient Chinese poet called "Questions to Heaven" to explore objects of the solar system. The Soviets landed a rover on Mars in 1971 but it died 20 seconds after landing, making China the only other nation besides the United States to do that.
A sample return mission to an asteroid called Kamo'oalewa is planned for the year 2025. China wants to return samples from Mars in a future mission. According to The Planetary Society, the return of the Martian samples to Earth will take place in July 2031.
The US is the main contender in a space race with China. The Chang'e-5 lunar landers returned samples from the lunar surface to Earth in December 2020. A sustainable presence on the moon will be established by China by the year 2030.
The country is a strong rival to the U.S. in the space race because of its lunar ambitions, and the proposed interplanetary missions could further establish its position as a spacefaring nation.
China and the United Arab Emirates will work together on a moon rover mission.
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