23 November 2012
In the eye of Ouyang Ziyuan, the Chief Scientist of China's lunar orbiter project, Chinese will not only explore the moon and Mars, but the sun, Venus and Jupiter, as well. "I wish we could travel further away," said Ouyang, in an interview with Xinhua on Friday, 23 November. "By 'further away,' I mean further than 400,000 kilometers (the distance between Earth and the moon). I hope it will be 1 billion, even 10 billion kilometers away from our home planet." The Chang'e-2 orbiter, China's second lunar probe, has flown further away, indeed, and will meet with planet number 4179 by the end of the year. "I hope Chinese people can set their 'footprints' all over the solar system," the 78-year-old scientist said.
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