China completes lander test for its first Mars mission in 2020

China successfully completed a lander test on November 14 in the Hebei province ahead of an unmanned exploration mission to Mars in the year 2020. Chief of the China National Space Administration, Zhang Kejian, stated that China is on schedule to successfully launch its Mars mission in 2020. The test was conducted at the landing test site in Huailai, northwest of Beijing.

China's mars exploration mission

The head behind the entire design of the exploration program, Zhang Rongqiao, stated that the journey to Mars will be completed in a span of 7 months, while the landing process will take a total of 7 minutes. 

The powerful Long March 5 rocket has been built by China to transport the probe to Mars in 2020. According to reports, the same rocket will deliver the Chang'e-5 probe to the Moon by the end of 2019 or in early 2020 which will bring back samples of lunar rock.

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China's Chang'e-4 probe had a successful landing on the far side of the moon in the month of January 2019, a historic achievement for China's space program. China successfully made its first landing on the Moon in the year 2013. 

According to reports, China expects to complete a modular space station around 2022, around the time when NASA will start building a new space station laboratory to orbit the moon, as a pit stop for missions to other parts of the solar system.

Read: SpaceX Launches 60 More Mini Satellites That Provide Internet Coverage

China's attempt to become a major space power

In 2003, China became the third country to send a man to space with the help of its own rocket after the former USSR and the United States of America. According to reports, it has been gunning to come on a par with Russia and the United States in order to become a major space power by the year 2030.

Read: Human Heart Cells Behave Differently In Space: Study

Israel's first moon mission

Earlier this year Israel launched its first moon mission by sending an unmanned spacecraft to collect data from the lunar surface in order to be shared with NASA. The Beresheet (Genesis) spacecraft was launched from a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Read: Space Age: 12 Bottles Of Red Wine Sent To International Space Station

(With inputs from agencies)