China appears to be on a mission to develop its space programme and become as much of an influential player as the US, Russia, Europe and India. An announcement from Beijing saw the government reveal images of their space probe and rover they intend on sending to Mars, in addition to this, the authorities also announced that there would be a public competition to decide the name and logo of the voyager.
It was only 8 days ago on 16th August that China launched a potentially revolutionary quantum-enabled satellite, testing communications technology. China previously tried in 2011 to land a space probe on Mars in a Russian spacecraft but technical hurdles prevented this happening. The global space centers are increasingly turning their attentions to Mars, where the only country to land a Rover so far is the US. That being said, a joint European-Russian mission is currently in progress.
China has focused a lot of attention to their space programs with recent missions and this latest announcement providing the evidence for such a statement. What with the advancements made in their economy and their ability to become a global powerhouse in such a short space of time, who is to question where a motivated China might take us.