Beijing and Moscow ink Mars exploration deal

They will survey landscape and collect soil from its moon Phobos


BEIJING - CHINA'S space ambitions were bolstered during President Hu Jintao's recently concluded visit to Russia, which netted a deal to launch a Chinese satellite atop a Russian spacecraft bound for Mars.

The deal reflects growing political trust between both sides and gives Chinese scientists access to Russia's more advanced space programme, analysts told The Straits Times.

Mr Hu's three-day visit, which ended on Wednesday, saw Beijing and Moscow furthering a strategic partnership believed to be aimed at counter-balancing the United States' global domination.

During his visit, Chinese companies also inked some US$4 billion (S$6 billion) worth of trade contracts with their Russian counterparts.

Moscow is a major arms supplier of China's People's Liberation Army, and the outcome of the visit suggests bilateral military and technological cooperation is gaining ground.

The space exploration agreement, inked on Monday, is their biggest space project to date, analysts said.

Professor Wang Xiangsui of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics told The Straits Times: 'Both countries have been looking for some time for an entry point to space cooperation, one that is not too sensitive or militaristic in nature.'

According to the new agreement, Chinese and Russian space agencies will launch a Chinese satellite in 2009, together with a Russian spacecraft bound for the Martian moon of Phobos to collect soil samples.

Reports say the Chinese satellite will conduct a scientific survey of the Martian landscape.

By participating in the Mars project, as well as a forthcoming global satellite navigation programme of the European Commission, China 'hopes to achieve some parity with the US' technological superiority in space', Prof Wang said.

China has always maintained that it is developing a space programme for peaceful, scientific purposes.

In January, however, it sparked an international outcry after it fired an anti-satellite missile into space to test its capability.

Relations between Beijing and Moscow have warmed considerably in recent years in contrast to their ideological rivalry during the Cold War.

During his Russian trip, Mr Hu met his counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow and also toured Russia's oil-rich Tatarstan region.

Russia is also being courted by the world's second-largest energy consumer for its energy resources.

However, gains in bilateral energy cooperation, if any, were less visible during Mr Hu's trip.

Moscow continues to avoid a firm commitment on building an offshoot to a projected oil pipeline from Siberia to Russia's east coast. Such a branch would feed oil directly into Chinese territory.

'Russia has already made the strategic decision to build the branch line,' said Sino-Russian expert Shi Ze of the China Institute of International Studies.

'Now it is only a matter of reaching an agreement on concrete details like how fast to get it built.'

Moscow has pledged to complete by next year the first phase of the 4,700km oil pipeline.

The first phase spans Siberia to end in Skovorodino, roughly 60km north of the Chinese border.