China and Russia plan trip to Mars

China and Russia will combine forces for a Mars project that will take place in 2009. The rocket will be launched in October of 2009, and will arrive on Mars in August 2010. The rocket will be carrying a 110 kilogram Yinghao-1, a device that will be used to gather information about Mars from an orbit above the planet. Once the rocket has landed on the planet it will retrieve a sample of soil, which will be used for further research to find out more information about Mars.
This is a very interesting and useful project. It is helpful for us to know about our neighbouring planets; there could be life on other planets that we might not know about. Also, if the conditions on the planet were suitable for living, life could slowly be started there. I personally wouldn't like to live on a different planet, because I am used to living on Earth and it would be difficult for me to adjust to life elsewhere, especially on a different planet. It would be interesting to see if some people would volunteer to live on a different planet. Hopefully this project will be successful, because if it isn't, a lot of money would be wasted, and no knowledge would be gained. Trips to space are very expensive, mainly because of the technology, equipment. It costs a lot of money to send a rocket ship to space, and everything has to be perfect for it to work; if one thing goes wrong the whole project could fail. Hopefully this project succeeds so that valuable information can be discovered about the planet of Mars.

December 9, 2008

Article provided by CBC News.

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