Asteroid mission planned by 2025

China plans to conduct at least one asteroid exploration mission before 2025, a senior space scientist said on Friday.

Ye Peijian, a leading scientist on deep-space exploration at the China Academy of Space Technology and a national political adviser, told China Daily that the asteroid mission will be carried out after the country's first Mars expedition in 2020 and before 2025.

"The detailed schedule and the target asteroid have yet to be determined, but we are working on them. We want to explore asteroids because their resources will be important to mankind's development in the future," he said.