China and Russia jointly explore Mars

Chinese and Russian spacecraft will take off in October this year to explore the red planet.

Mars and its Phobos satellite. ( Photo: arcadiastreet.com )

Xinhua said China plans to launch Domus 1 , the name of the first Mars explorer built by the country, in October 2009 with the unmanned Russian spacecraft Phobos Explorer from Baikonur space airport at Kazakhstan. However, the launch of two spacecraft was postponed.

An unnamed official from the China Space Technology Institute revealed that the launch of Dom-1 and Phobos Explorer was delayed until October this year. Two ships will cross the 350 million km route in 11 months to reach Mars. Before going into Mars orbit, they will separate and operate independently.

Firefly-1 will explore Mars's environment and find out why water - once common on the surface of the red planet - disappears. Phobos Explorer will land on Phobos - one of two Mars satellites - to collect soil and rock samples and return to earth. Scientists will study the soil and rock samples that the ship brought to find out the origin of Mars and answer the question: Does life exist on Mars?

The official also said China will launch its own explorer ship in 2013.

China is exploring the moon and launching ships to Mars is the next step in Beijing's ambitious space exploration program. The Chinese government hopes one day it will be on par with the US and Russia in space exploration. Currently China is the third country in the world - after Russia and the US - to bring people to space.