China's first mission to Mars is due to take off in October while the country's second moon probe is expected to blast into the sky a year ahead of schedule, a Hong Kong-based newspaper has revealed.

A Russian-made rocket will launch the Yinghuo-1 satellite on its 350-million-kilometer journey, and it is expected to reach Mars on August 29, 2010, Wen Wei Po reported.

At that time the distance between Earth and Mars will be about 56 million kilometers -- the shortest distance between the two, said Chen Changya, chief designer of the China-Russia Mars exploration project.

The Chinese-developed Yinghuo-1, which means firefly, will explore the Martian environment during its year-long mission and carry out research as to how surface water on the planet disappeared, Chen said.

Shadow periods are considered the greatest challenges facing Yinghuo-1. There will be seven during its orbits around Mars.

Each shadow period, which prevents the satellite receiving solar energy, will last 8.8 hours. Yinghuo-1 has to go to sleeping status and restart itself after getting through each shadow.

Researchers are still looking at ways to help the satellite sustain extremely low temperatures as they will plunge to minus 200 degrees Celsius in the shadows, Chen added.

Meanwhile, China's second moon probe, Chang'e-2, is likely to be launched this year, a year ahead of schedule, the newspaper said.

Chang'e-2 will collect more detailed images and statistics of the moon's surface.

In 2012, Chang'e-3 is expected to carry a lunar landing spacecraft and a moon rover. In the final phase, another rover will land on the moon and return to Earth with soil and stone samples for scientific research in or around 2018, the newspaper said.

The country launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, on October 24, 2007.

(Shanghai Daily January 6, 2009)