BEIJING, April 6 -- A top Chinese space official has described China's ambitious exploration plans, including robotic moon missions starting next year.

    Beyond moon missions, including a flight to collect and return lunar samples to Earth in 2017, the Chinese space agency plans to develop a nonpolluting launch vehicle into orbit by 2010, the China News Service quoted Luo Ge, vice administrator of the Chinese National Space Administration, as saying yesterday.

    "Space is a high-risk investment," Luo said Monday through a translator at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "China as a developing country is limited and constrained by its funding for more ambitious programs."

    Luo said China's total annual investment in space programs is equivalent to US$500 million. NASA's proposed budget for fiscal 2007 is US$16.8 billion.

    The Chinese space agency envisions a constellation of eight satellites to monitor global disasters, and another satellite that would watch Earth's magnetic fields as a possible predictor of earthquakes, Luo said.

    Luo headed a delegation that visited NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and had a discussion with the U.S. space agency's chief, Michael Griffin.

    Describing his meeting with Griffin, Luo said he talked about how open the United States was on his first visit in 1980.

    "At that time I found the U.S. was very open, and in the 1990s and now, it's the other way around," he said.

    China's space program has moved ahead in the last three years, including the launch of two human missions.

    Luo said China has had 46 consecutive successful launches since 1996, including 23 satellites and six Shenzhou spacecrafts, which can carry astronauts.

    China's Moon exploration program includes a lunar fly-by in 2007, a soft landing in 2012 and a return of lunar samples by 2017.

    He said China has cooperated on space programs with Europe, Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia and Brazil, among others.

    Asked if China was looking for cooperation with the United States and other nations on the international space station, Luo replied: "We have always been interested; we don't have a ticket yet."

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)