China on Friday unveiled plans to send a rover to Mars around 2020 to explore the Red Planet and launch 150 long range carrier rockets in the next five years for its ambitious space missions.

“The Mars probe is expected to orbit the red planet, land and deploy a rover all in one mission, which 1is quite difficult to achieve,” Xu Dazhe, director of the National Space Administration told the media here.

Xu said the Chinese government has the Mars mission in early this year.

4月22日，中国透露雄心勃勃的太空任务，计划2020年把火星车送上火星，并探索该红色星球，以及未来5年发射150枚远程运载火箭。

“火星探测器将进入火星轨道，登陆火星并部署一辆火星车，这是很难实现的。”国家航天局局长许达哲说。

Stressing the mission’s importance and difficulty, he said that although China has sent spacecraft deep into space, “only by completing this Mars probe mission can China say it has embarked on the exploration of deep space in the true sense.”

许强调了火星任务的重要性和困难性。他说，虽然中国把宇宙飞船送入了太空，但是只有完成了火星探测任务，中国才能说进行了真正意义上的深空探索。

India has become the first Asian country after Mangalyan reached the red planet joining US, European Union and Russia which have sent successful missions to Mars.

Mangalyan号探测器成功抵达红色星球后，印度成为了第一个成功探测火星的亚洲国家。

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