China’s Wants To Develop ‘Strength And Size’ Of Space Program In The Next 5 Years

China wants to develop the "strength and size" of its space program, according to a China National Space Administration official. The nation, which is already emerging as one of the top players of space research and exploration, wants to speed up the development of its space program in the next five years.

"To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is a dream we pursue unremittingly," stated an official policy proposal/white paper, according to China Daily. In the next five years, the country plans to speed up the development of its space program. One of the first objectives in the pipeline for China is to become the first country to try a controlled landing of a probe on the far side of the lunar surface in 2018.

According to officials from China's space agency, the landing on the Moon's far side could help in explaining and deciphering its formation and evolution. Moreover, as per space security expert He Qisong, from Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, a soft lunar landing would also show how the country has fully developed the technology to achieve such a feat of landing on a specific area of the Moon's surface. "China never talks big and says something it's unable to achieve," Qisong told the Associated Press.

The nation also has plans to launch a Mars mission by 2020. It is aiming at exploring the Red Planet and also bringing back samples from it.

Jupiter is another planet that China has sets its eye upon as per the white paper. In the future, the country wants to explore the largest known planet of the Solar System and conduct "research into major scientific questions such as the origin and evolution of the solar system, and search for extraterrestrial life." The white paper also added that China is committed to the peaceful use of space and is against a space arms race.