It's taken five hundred years, but the dragon is starting to awaken.

During the Ming Dynasty, China led the way in the Age of Exploration. Fleets commanded by Admiral Zheng-He reached the east coast of Africa and possibly the Pacific Northwest coast of North America...and then everything changed. Fearing foreign influence, the Ming emperors recalled their fleets and closed the country, which stagnated for the next half millennium.

As if it make up for lost time, China has now embarked on an aggressive program of space exploration as the China National Space Administration announces their intention to have probes on Mars by 2011. Considering this lost-and-found heritage of exploration (and the fact that rockets are a Chinese invention), none of this should come as any surprise.

"In the coming five years, China will, on the basis of its moon probes, plan deep-space exploration, focusing on lunar and Martian exploration," said CNSA chief Sun Laiyan at the 36th Scientific Assembly of Committee on Space Research in Beijing. He gave few details, however. Yesterday, senior space scientist Long Lehao stated that the Long March rocket was capable of sending satellites to any planet, including Mars. For the immediate future,  the Chang'e 1 lunar probe will be launched next year.

"It is unnecessary to wait until after we have completed the lunar mission to initiate the Martian programme. We could begin during the lunar mission," Sun said. He also assured at the conference that China intends to "actively" cooperate with  international community in deep-space endeavors.

China's burning ambition to be the next nation to put a man on the moon is old hat; in a previous article we covered their plans to land on the moon by 2024.

Recent developments are showing that these Chinese plans are continuing apace. The Xinhua News Agency has just reported the successful test-firing of the engines of a new rocket that could be used to launch this landmark flight to the moon.

The new rocket, known as 'Long March C', has engines that are thrice as powerful as those of its predecessors - they burn liquid hydrogen and kerosene and generate a maximum propulsion of 109 tons. Long Lehao, chief engineer of the project, has described this improvement as critical to the program, as the existing launch vehicles aren't powerful enough to take men to the moon.

In addition, the 'Long March C' will also have a multitude of other uses: it will be used to place China's first space station into orbit; it is expected to compete with Japan, the US and Europe in the satellite-launch market; and it will also be the cornerstone of efforts to place an unmanned vehicle on the moon by 2010.

Check back with us for further developments.

China now has enough technology, material, and economic strength to put a man on space by 2024, says deputy chief architect of China's lunar probing project Long Lehao.

It seems like the efforts of China's ambitious space exploration, set for 2017, is just the third of the four steps that will eventually lead to the country's putting a man on space. The first stage was already realized when China sent Shenzou IV to orbit the Earth. The second stage will take place from 2009 to 2015 and will see China's first space walk.

China is gearing at the possibility of mining the moon for its Helium-3, which has great potential as a non-polluting fuel source. Although currently, there is still no technology to exploit Helium-3, it is still being eyed for its value as a replacement for oil and gas.

China will be sending an unmanned probe to orbit the moon and survey its surface next year.