China's first Mars-exploration space probe will be launched in early November of this year from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodromen. China will be the fifth country to send a space probe to Mars following the U.S., Russia, the European Union and Japan.
The Chinese state media on Sunday quoted an official from the China Space Technology Research Institute as saying, "Through collaborative research, Chinese and Russian researchers decided to launch the space probe in early November of this year and the liftoff will go ahead as scheduled."

The Yinghuo 1 will be launched together with the Russian probe Phobos-Grunt probe. The Yinghuo 1 weighs 110 kg, measures 75x 60 cm and is equipped with 8 devices, including 2 high-resolution cameras, magnetic field detectors, ion probes and optical image producers. The journey to Mars will take 10months before it enters the planet's orbit to monitor environment, solar waves and magnetic fields. It will also produce a vertical distribution chart of moisture and temperatures in the planet's atmosphere, according to Chinese media.

The probe, which has a two-year lifespan, has been designed to withstand the harsh environment of Mars, where the temperature differences between day and night are more than 100 degrees and the mercury can drop to -200 degrees Celsius at night.

China relies on Russian technology for the rocket to launch the Yinghuo 1 but plans to send a second version to Mars by 2013 using its own. It also plans to build a space station by 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon by 2025 to emerge as a rival to the U.S. and Russia in space exploration.

Source: Chosun