CHANGSHA, Apr 24 (Xinhua): China aims to build a scientific research station in the south polar region of the moon and realise manned lunar exploration mission in about ten years, said a senior space official on Wednesday.
Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration, made the remarks at the opening ceremony of China's Space Day in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.
China will launch the Chang'e-5 lunar probe to collect and return lunar samples back to Earth at the end of 2019, Zhang said.
Shaoshan, the hometown of China's late leader Mao Zedong, will be one of the permanent storage centers of the lunar samples, Zhang said.
He also mentioned in his speech that China plans to launch its first probe to explore Mars in 2020.
Meanwhile, science facilities on China's planned Tiangong space station could support hundreds of space research projects after it's completed in 2022.
Sixteen experiment racks will be installed in the core module and two lab capsules of the space station, and an extravehicular experiment platform will be built.
Each rack is regarded as a lab that can support various space experiments, and astronauts can upgrade and replace the facilities.
In addition, a capsule holding a large optical telescope will fly in the same orbit as the station, according to the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilisation (CSU) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The facilities will support a large number of research projects in fields such as astronomy, space life science, biotechnology, microgravity basic physics and space materials science.
