Space administration officials had announced earlier that China would send another soft-landing probe to fetch lunar samples around 2017.

Long said the challenge for China's proposed Martian mission, however, is to develop monitoring and control systems that can track and control the actions of the probe.

Sun told the scientists at the conference that China will "actively" participate in international co-operation regarding deep-space exploration.

In the next five years, China will independently develop and launch a satellite to travel beyond the solar system, he said.

Sun credited 40 years of indigenous effort in establishing the disciplines of astrophysics, space environment, space astronomy, planetary exploration, micro-gravity and space bio-technology.

Statistics indicated that during the past decade, China has earmarked at least 900 million yuan (US$112.5 million) for space science infrastructure and programmes.