SUBJECT: PLANNING MISSION TO RED PLANET FILE: UFO3348 Date: 10-26-92 22:20 MARS A MULTINATIONAL TARGET from the Associated Press Chinese-Russian team planning mission to red planet BEIJING - Chinese and Russian scientists are preparing for a joint mission to explore Mars and look for signs of life, an official report said Sunday. For the past two years, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been working with the Russian Academy of Sciences researching and making high-altitude soundine balloons for detect- ing cosmic rays and studying space environment, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Yuri Sergeevich Osipov, the president of the Russian academy, was quoted as saying they were preparing to launch a spacecraft in 1994 that will orbit Mars and collect data. A second launch in 1996 will land on the planet to explore its climate and geology and search for signs of life. The project has been dubbed Mars-96. France, Italy and the United States also are working on the project, but Osipov did not give details of their work. The Soviet Union launched two Mars-bound spacecraft in 1988; but both failed to reach the planet, the report said. China's space technology has focused on satellite launches. It has said it would launch an unmanned spacecraft by the year 2000, but few details of those plans have been reported. ********************************************************************* * -------->>> THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo <<<------- * *********************************************************************